Crimson
by 80sUnLoveChild
Summary: As requested, I have re-uploaded my story Crimson. It's all in one long doc though. For new readers it's basically what happens after Prom in Season 2 & disregards Season 3 since it was written before then! As always It's Finn/Rachel-centric with a healthy dose of ND.


**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN GLEE, I AM NOT RICH. I AM IN FACT JUST A FAN. AN OBSESSIVE ONE AT THAT! **

_GLEE!_

Blood. It was hard to believe that such a petite girl could have so much blood. The crimson had stained the tiles, seeped into her pink gown turning it a disturbing rust colour. Her hand quivered as she brushed the fallen lock from Rachel's pale forehead, she could only hope that the ambulance would be there soon. She hadn't even left the bathroom and alerted anyone else what was happening; she just couldn't leave Rachel by herself, she may like being the star but she doubted Rachel would want everyone to see her like this.

"What happened?" The EMT barked bursting into the small bathroom the door swinging enough to give her a glimpse of the curious crowd outside.

"She was slapped, she hit her head on the edge of the basin." Tina explained quickly. "I was in the bathroom stall and I heard her fall, the girl who slapped her ran off and that's when I came out. She hasn't woken up, I used the towel to keep pressure on her head but she just kept bleeding."

"Tina? What's going on?" Mr Schue asked, he'd managed to push his way through the students and into the bathroom, she could easily hear Coach Sylvester yelling at everyone to sit down and shut up, it was especially easy since the music had been cut off. "Is that Rachel?"

Tina nodded hugging herself. "Quinn hit her, she said something about Rachel ruining her life. She didn't even go for help, she just left her here bleeding!"

"Are you okay? Did you want me to get Mike?"

Again she could only nod. The EMT's had paid no attention to the two speaking only in rapid fire to each other.

"We're taking her to Sacred Heart, it looks like she could have a fractured skull, she's lucky you were here for her." The EMT told Tina. "Only one of you can ride in the ambulance, are her parents here?"

"Where's my diva? What happened?" Kurt babbled pushing into the bathroom and almost tripping over the girl in question. "Is she okay? Why are you just standing here? FIX HER!"

Blaine pulled his boyfriend out of the way letting the two workers push Rachel through and head to the ambulance.

"I'm going with her! Meet us there!" Kurt yelled sprinting after them.

"Someone should call her Dads." Tina mumbled glad to finally have the comfort of her boyfriend's arms.

"What happened to Berry?" Puck demanded. "I just saw her being loaded into an ambulance. Was it Jesse? I will smash that kid's face through the wall!"

"And I'll help him." Lauren added crossing her arms over her chest.

"Guys getting angry isn't helping, we need to get to the hospital." Blaine reasoned leading them towards the exit. "Is there anyone else you need to tell?"

"I'll find Artie and Sam." Mike volunteered. "And tell Brittany and Santana but I don't think they'll care."

"Meet us at the limo in five minutes or we leave without you." Mercedes threatened already heading for the exit pulling her phone out as she went. "Mrs. Hummel? It's Mercedes, there's something you should know."

Not wanting to anger Mercedes, Mike showed up at the limo with two minutes to spare, Artie, Sam, Brittany and Santana in tow.

"What the hell happened?" Santana demanded. "I know Berry can be annoying but who the hell would do something like this?"

"Where's Mr Schue?" Brittany asked, overlapping her best friend.

"He's calling her Dads." Blaine answered, her looked just as stricken as the rest but was keeping a relatively calm head. "Kurt went with her in the ambulance, I should call his Dad, let him know what's happening."

"Already taken care of." Mercedes told him. "I called Carole and asked her to bring Rachel's overnight bag to the hospital, I guess we'll be having a different sleepover than we imagined."

"I am going to string that assface up by his ankles and use his face as a boxing bag." Puck growled again clenching his fists. "I knew him being back was going to hurt her."

"It wasn't Jesse." Tina spoke up, her body was still trembling, her hands still dried with blood. "He was kicked out before it happened."

"Then who hit Rachel?"

"Quinn." She answered. "Quinn told Rachel that she had ruined her life, she had somehow made her lose Prom Queen so she hit her."

"I know Berry's a midget but how could Quinn do so much damage?" Santana asked.

"She slapped her, I heard Rachel stumble and hit her head on the basin and then she fell to the floor. Quinn just left even though she was bleeding. She just ran."

"And you guys think I'm a bitch." She mumbled. "Who told Finn?"

"Crap."

GLEE!

The hospital staff were obviously not expecting to have to accommodate such a large group. They'd basically filled the waiting room to capacity and were yelling over each other trying to find out about Rachel. The head nurse looked ready to kick them all out; thankfully Carole arrived and moved them all to a private waiting room while she found out what was going on.

"Kurt!"

Mercedes tackled her best friend taking in his bloodshot eyes and instantly feeling sick.

"What's going on?"

"I don't know. They told me to wait and I haven't been able to find out anything else since." Kurt replied hugging Blaine and Mercedes. "They kept saying things like skull fractures and brain injuries."

"This is Rachel we're talking about." Santana pointed out. "She won't let something as stupid as a crack in her skull keep her from taking centre stage in New York."

"I fractured my arm once, they put a cast on it and Santana drew hearts and butterflies on it." Brittany told Kurt leaning over to rub his arm. "I'll put gold sticker on her cast. She'll love it."

Artie gently pulled his girlfriend away, Kurt looked two seconds away from nuclear meltdown; Chernobyl bad.

"Why would anyone do this?" He asked rubbing his hair not even caring that it was getting mussed up. "I don't get it; who would just leave someone there, bleeding? Helpless."

Santana looked ready to reply but wisely kept her mouth shut with a little help from Lauren forcefully clamping her hand over her lips.

"Don't worry about that right now, just focus on Rachel." Blaine suggested kissing Kurt's knuckles. "Have you seen her Dads?"

Kurt nodded. "They got here a few minutes after we did; I think they broke every traffic law in America. I'm surprised you couldn't hear Leroy's bellowing out in the car park."

"So that's where she gets it." Mike joked weakly, Tina was still a mess her head buried in his chest. "Just trying to lighten the mood."

"Not working." Puck snapped raking his hands over his head; this could not be happening to his favourite Jewish-American princess.

"Want me to find the bitch and make her disappear?" Lauren offered quietly scowling; truthfully she'd been looking for a reason to punch Quinn's face in for a while. What kind of bitch goes through life hating yourself and being put down only to turn around and do worse to other people? She just didn't get it.

"Later." Puck replied. He didn't want to kill Quinn, she was his baby mama after all. Of course right now with Rachel in an OR and everybody freaking out that one point in her favour was looking pretty lonely.

"Kids." Carole called out softly not moving from the doorway. "The doctor's have seen the x-ray and luckily there's no fracture."

"Thank god."

"She's not out of the woods yet, there's still bleeding to repair and the possibility of brain damage. We wont know anything until her scans come back and she wakes up. I know I wont be able to get Kurt to leave and I assume the same will be true for the rest of you so please call your parents and let them know what is going on."

Mercedes took stock of the motley group, all dressed in their finest that was now rumpled and in some cases mascara stained. Santana was yelling into her phone in rapid Spanish which no one understood despite their years in Mr. Schue's class. Mike was talking to his parents who were at game night with Tina's.

"Shouldn't you call your parents?" Lauren asked putting her phone away, her parents hadn't answered and she'd left a voicemail.

"They're not expecting me home, it's prom." Sam shrugged. "I don't want to wake my brother and sister up, it takes forever to get them to sleep."

"Ma calm down! No I-Ma! I don't think they need milanos right now!"

In spite of the situation the smallest of laughs escaped Mercedes' lips at the spectacle that was Noah Puckerman and his mother.

"Who knew Pucky Puck was a mama's boy?" She cracked laughing hard, Brittany started to giggle as well, especially when he started kicking the word and muttering gibberish, soon even Kurt had a minute smile on his lips.

"Quit it! Berry might be brain dead and you're all laughing like it's okay!" Santana yelled. "We should be looking for that bitch and making sure Hudson knows exactly what she did!"

"Quinn did this?" Kurt asked his knuckles turning white as he grasped Blaine's hand tightly.

"I knew that girl was trouble!" Carole growled. "I thought if I told him not to date her again it would just seem more appealing. That girl is not welcome in our home, she is not welcome in our street!"

"Yikes, I've never seen Mama Hudson freak out like this." Mercedes whispered to Sam in concern. "Although it would explain where Finn's violent streak comes from."

"Looks like it rubbed off on Kurt." Sam whispered back nodding towards the boy who was screaming in a pitch so high only dogs could understand.

"Calm down, I'll go find Finn and you wait here." Blaine suggested. "Mike can come with me, I think out of everyone we're the most neutral."

"You bring his ass here and we're all going to have a nice little conversation." Santana said sweetly. "Bonus points if you bring bottle blonde blubber bitch too."

"You've got to shorten that name down." Brittany commented. "Long names confuse me."

"I may be a bitch but the one word I would use, not even I say." Santana sniped. "Why are you still here Warbler? Vamanos!"

"I'm going!" Blaine said hurriedly half expecting wolverine claws to burst from her nails and slice at him. "Come on Mike."

The dancer transferred his girlfriend to Mercedes who accepted her easily signalling Brittany to sit on her other side.

"Keep your phone on you, the second you find Frankenteen and Miss Murder you call me so I can meet you in the parking lot and whoop her ass."

"Yeah, I'll do that." Blaine promised sending Kurt a look that stressed how much he would not be doing that.

"Seriously Warbler if your ass isn't out that door in seconds my foot will be helping it out." Santana growled again fighting against Lauren to jump at him.

"Try the bowling alley!" Puck yelled after the two boys. "He goes there when he's stressed."

Lauren rubbed his hand trying the concerned girlfriend thing she'd seen on TV. Kurt and Santana oddly enough were hugging both blubbering in such a way that no one but the two seemed able to understand. Carole was talking with Rachel's Dads who seemed ready to kill someone.

"Guys, how is she?"

"She's still in surgery." Carole answered. "They seem optimistic."

"That's great." He replied relieved. "I know this isn't the best time but the police are outside, Sue called them. They want to talk to Tina."

"A-a-alone?" She stuttered, nerves made her slip into old habits. "I don't want to talk to them alone."

"I'll be there with you since your parents aren't here." Mr. Schue promised. "I think they might have questions for the rest of you after."

"We're not going anywhere." Puck told him. "Not until Berry's singing some Broadway ditty and annoying the crap out of the nurses."

"I can call Miss. Pillsbury if you guys need anyone to talk to." He offered. "I know she would want to be here for you guys."

"That's okay, I don't think anyone wants to talk about their feelings right now." Mercedes assured him. "Although she might be able to clm Santana down."

Mr. Schue looked at the Latina who was thumbing away at her phone, a scowl covering her face.

"Do I want to know?"

The frowns answered him, he had to worry about Rachel and getting his kids through this. Then he would worry about what Santana was up to.

_GLEE!_

Blaine was getting sick of driving around Lima, in a town that small how hard was it to find someone usually described as Frankenteen? The dude was totally Where's Wallying his ass.

"Maybe we should check Quinn's house?" Mike suggested. "She's probably burying his body for costing her Prom Queen."

"If Quinn can almost kill someone and then head on home like nothing happened she's a real piece of work." Blaine said slowing down past Breadstix. "What's her address?"

"She's two streets over, Murdoch Avenue." Mike directed trying to get Finn on the phone again. "He's still not answering, if we don't bring him back we're dead."

"Well let's be smart about this. If you were Finn and you'd just gotten kicked out of Prom for fighting over your ex-girlfriend with her ex/question mark might be on again boyfriend. Where would you go?"

"Considering Finn's still in love with Rachel, I'd be at her house on my hands and knees begging for her forgiveness." Mike answered easily. "Or I'd be breaking up with Quinn."

"Or not be stupid enough to be in this situation?" Blaine added laughing ruefully. "I doubt Finn is even thinking about how much Quinn wants his head right now, he's at Rachel's house. Her Dads came straight from dinner, he's probably sitting on the doorstep looking every bit the cliché eighties idiot who screwed over the lovable female heroine."

"If he's wearing a trench coat and rocking a boom box I may just cry." Mike laughed. "For a minute there I actually forgot why we're looking for him."

"Yeah." Blaine drove down the whole street and saw no evidence of Finn's beat up truck. "Looks like we're heading to Casa Berry."

Mike nodded and sat back not feeling like making small talk, his phone was being lit up every few minutes with texts.

"Who keeps texting you? I figured Carole would have made everyone turn off their phones by now."

"Actually it's Matt." Mike said staring down at the small screen. "He's my best friend, moved to Philadelphia at the start of the year, he wants to know how Rachel is."

"How would he know?" Blaine wondered out loud not bothering to go around the smooth roundabout but over it.

"It's all over facebook and twitter." Mike answered accessing his page using his iPhone. "Santana's threatening to pluck Quinn's hairs out one by one, she's offering five hundred to whoever manages to bring either Finn or Quinn to the hospital. Nice to know she has faith in us."

"She should." Blaine nodded towards the red truck in his sights. "Isn't that Finn's car?"

Mike jumped from the car before Blaine had even pulled to a stop, Rachel's house was still a few more up. Blaine pulled out his phone to send a quick text to Kurt, knowing him he'd probably already alienated the entire hospital staff and quite possibly his friends.

"He's not here!"

"What? Are you sure?"

"I checked the front and back." Mike replied. "I'm sure I can spot a giant."

"What about Rachel's house? They dated for months he probably knows where the spare key is hidden."

"Good thinking 99."

Not surprisingly considering it was Lima and there was barely any crime the Berry household was unlocked, Blaine was used to the museum of Rachel that was the front hall and headed straight up the stairs towards her bedroom; it was the one with a giant gold star emblazoned with Rachel.

"Is he in there?" Mike whispered suddenly feeling like one of the wet bandits from _Home Alone_.

Flicking on the light it was easy to answer Mike's question. Sure enough Finn was on Rachel's bed holding a stuffed care bear to his chest and snoring. Loudly.

"I pity whoever gets stuck with him in New York." Mike muttered; he sounded like a foghorn.

"I think I've solved the mystery of the ringing out phone." Blaine deadpanned holding up the smashed phone, it's screen was cracked in and it didn't have a back and yet still rang.

"Shit! Is that Rachel's diary?" Mike grabbed the sparkling notebook. "Like he wasn't already in enough trouble."

"Actually I think it's a good thing. At least now he knows what an ass he's been." Blaine grabbed the notebook away putting it on the desk. "Finn. Wake up."

"OW!" Mike was now clutching his face from where Finn had sluggged him, all while still asleep. "FINN!"

"Santa?" He murmured sleepily. "What are you guys doing in Rachel's bedroom?"

"Looking for the not good enough ex who should be at the hospital." Mike snapped; he got a little more talkative and mean after being punched.

"What?"

"Finn just get up, we have to get you to the hospital before Kurt screams so loudly he shatters all the windows." Blaine pushed the much taller teen towards the door not being very careful.

"Who's at the hospital?"

"Rachel." Mike and Blaine said together, so serious the situation that neither called jinx.

"If I knew that would get him moving I would have opened with it." Mike mumbled running after Finn who had practically fallen down the stairs all while interrogating Blaine about what had happened. He must have learnt how to talk without breathing from Rachel.

_GLEE!_

Cotton. Weird first thought but if you were here it would have been your first thought too. Quickly followed by water. And then pain killers. Well at least in some kind of order those three thoughts would be your first.

"Miss Berry, can you hear us?"

Her mouth felt so dry and stuffed that she could only nod, she pantomimed a drink only realising the mistake after, her arms felt incredibly heavy.

"You gave everyone quite a scare, now we have to run some scans and our neurologist will need to speak to you but for now I think we can all be very happy that the worst is over."

Again she nodded pretending like she had any clue what he was talking about.

"Your skull isn't fractured but you did have a nasty fall, we stopped the bleeding and you've been stitched up. We were concerned that there may be bleeding on the brain but we are hopeful that that isn't the case." The doctor continued in that vain while she just sipped at the water that was just about the most delicious thing she had ever tasted. "Would you like to see your parents before we send you down for the scans?"

Yet another emphatic nod. She was dying for someone to tell her what was going on, what was really going on like how she got here and why her head hurt.

"Baby!"

Leroy continually kissed her forehead while Hiram held her hand tightly.

"Thank God you're awake!"

"Kurt! You're not meant to be in here." Hiram lectured. "Of course since you're practically joined to Rachel's hip lately I can't say I'm surprised."

"Everybody is here. Puck punched a hole in the wall and Santana and Lauren are fighting over who gets to kill Quinn for this." Kurt babbled perching on the bed and running his hand up her arm. "Why aren't you saying anything? She hasn't lost her voice has she? Has she forgotten how to talk?"

"The drugs have left her dehydrated." Doctor Guerin interrupted. "I'm sorry but I have to ask you to leave Rachel is being taken down for an MRI right now."

"We'll be here when you wake up sweetie." Leroy promised hugging his husband who was blowing kisses to Rachel.

"Me too!" Kurt yelled. "All of us. We're not leaving until you can."

The doctor raised his eyebrows at that but said nothing. Rachel still of sore throat was left helpless being pushed in a wheelchair through the hallways with only one thought. What had Quinn done to her?

_GLEE!_

You would think that the drama that was glee would mean that when Finn finally came barrelling into the waiting room Rachel's two dads would have to be restrained by Mr Schue and Puck while they hurled abuse at him. It came as a surprise to pretty much everyone when instead Leroy stood up and embraced him while Hiram grasped his hand.

"Is anyone else seeing this?" Mercedes asked positive that her shock had finally made her go crazy.

"Unless we're in a collective psychological break then yeah." Lauren answered. "I thought for sure the fathers Berry would want to kick Finn's ass since he dumped Rachel."

"Surprisingly they always got along well." Kurt intervened. "I'm not sure who was more upset by the break up, them or her. Of course that could all be moot now since Finn looks ready to go John Q on this hospital to find out about Rach."

"How is she? What happened? Is she okay?"

"She's getting scans sweetie." Carole consoled him. "The doctors are optimistic, she's woken up so hopefully she'll pull through with minimal injuries."

"What happened?" He repeated his face barely showing the relief he felt at knowing she was okay at the moment. "I drove to her house after I got kicked out for punching St. Jerkwad, did he do this to her?"

"Sam they want to speak to you now." Mr Schuester interrupted escorting Tina back into the room, he quickly embraced Finn who he considered to be like a son to him. "They want to speak to Puck and Mercedes after Sam."

Finn looked confused, who wanted to speak to everyone? He vaguely recalled seeing a police car out the front but he had no idea if it had anything to do with Rachel.

"They've called Quinn's mother, they couldn't contact her father but she hasn't seen her. If any of you can think of where she might be please let the officer's know. They've sent a car out to do a sweep of the streets but no one has seen her yet."

"They better hope they find her before I do." Santana murmured.

"Quinn did this?" Finn asked obviously not as slow as people pegged him to be. "Why?"

"Because psycho whore Barbie blames Rachel for her losing Prom Queen and being humiliated because her boyfriend beat the crap out of his ex-girlfriend's date because he was a jealous ass." Brittany said from memory. "Right Santana?"

"Nice repetition Brits." The Latina praised. "Ex-Preggers finally realised what everyone else already knew; that you are still into Berry and the only reason you got back with her was because you wanted to hurt Rachel for kissing Puck which she only did because you slept with me and never told her about it."

"His mother is in the room." Carole reminded them all. "And I think my son and I will be having a little chat soon."

"Rachel only kissed Puck because she figured Finn and her were practically broken up since he refused to explain what happened and kept ogling the cheerios." Mercedes added ignoring Mrs. Hummel. "If my boyfriend never defended me and actually laughed when someone teased me I'd be insecure too."

"Can we talk not talk about the fact that Finn is an ass right now?" Puck asked. "It's making me angrier and I really don't need to break my hand from pummelling him into the wall while the fuzz is outside."

"Dude chill you're not T-Bag from Prison Break." Artie rolled his eyes. "At least let Finn get caught up with what's going on before you kick his ass."

"Mom?"

"Kids, I don't think your anger is helping anyone, nor is playing the blame game." Carole started holding onto her son's hand tightly. "I consider that girl to be like the daughter I never had and it is killing me that that little harlot Fabray put her in there but I trust that the police will resolve this issue. At this point we don't know if she meant to harm Rachel or if Rachel will even wont to press charges against Quinn for assault. The only thing we do know is that right now you guys need to start acting like a family and a family doesn't just turn on each other because they've made mistakes. They let them know what they did wrong and how to fix it."

"Great I'll start." Kurt offered. "Firstly Finn you are my brother and I love you but you are the biggest idiot in the world. I'll admit that I wasn't exactly pleased when you first started dating Rachel but that was because I never knew her. Not like you did and now that I do it is unfathomable to me that you would trade in a diamond for cubic zirconium."

"That's not what I meant." Carole hurried on placing a comforting hand on Finn's shoulder.

"No." Finn mumbled. "He's right. I have been an idiot, I've been acting like a jackass."

"Even I thought you were acting like a cold bitch." Santana snapped. "Dating Quinn after she fed you that dumbass hot tub story to make you think you were the baby daddy which she never apologized for? You know that thing she LIED to you about? Kind of like how you LIED to Berry about you and me? And what did she do? Except treat you with honesty and respect? She kissed Puckerman after I taunted her and you did nothing about it, as per usual. I know everyone thinks I screwed up your relationship just to stir the pot but the truth is Berry deserves better than you."

"My head hurts." Brittany complained. "Everybody has to calm down before it explodes."

"I think Finn's heard enough for right now." Blaine tried. "I think between the two of you." He gestured to Santana and Kurt. "He has a lot to think about and we need to focus on Rachel and helping the police right now."

"Why are the police here?"

"Because Quinn intended to hurt Rachel when she slapped her. Leaving her bleeding on a bathroom floor means she fled the scene of a crime. That's just two things she could be charged with." Blaine explained, he was planning on going pre-law after high school. "At the least she'll be charged with battery or intention to cause bodily harm. Since she didn't go for help she could be caused with attempted murder, that doesn't even include the charges Rachel's dads could file on her behalf; emotional damages and distress. Plus Quinn has a history of bullying and taunting Rachel."

"In short, bitch is fucked." Santana summed up. "Couldn't happen to a nicer person."

Finn sat quiet his mind processing what had just been shouted at him. His girlfriend had intentionally hurt his ex-girlfriend and no matter how you cut it, it was his fault. If he hadn't been so stubborn and pissed off that yet another one of his girlfriend's had gone to Puck he could have actually done what everyone had told him to do; talk to her. He cringed inwardly; he'd been a sucky boyfriend. He knew that much. And as far as ex's go he was pretty bad at that too. As a friend he was the worst. He had to fix all of that.

"We've got a list of places she might have gone." Mercedes offered up. "Can you think of anywhere else? Someplace special you two went?"

Special? They rarely went anywhere except her room, the mall, breadstix and school. She refused to go to the bowling alley and he never took her to his house.

"I can't think of anywhere, how far can she get in a prom dress and heels?" He replied. "I'd call her but I kind of threw my phone at the wall and broke it."

"She's probably just hiding out in the choir room crying." Brittany said. "Or the girl's room, I always cry in those places because they're safe."

"Her mum said she wasn't at home but she could have been lying." Artie added. "She's probably freaking out and not thinking straight, Brittany's right she would go somewhere she felt safe."

"Sylvester has that place locked down tighter than a tube top on Roseanne." Santana smirked. "I say we give Coach a call and let her handle her little mini-me."

"Now, now I think we all just need to settle down." Carole fixed the group with a stern stare. "I'm not a fan of that girl and would love to see her get her comeuppance but I think it should be up to Rachel to decide what happens next."

"Oh Rachel will want justice." Mercedes said knowingly. "We'll make sure of it. Girl has been stepped over, spat on and messed up more than a football field, it's about time she stood up for herself."

"Puck they're ready for you." Sam announced re-entering the room. "And I overheard the doctors outside talking about Rachel."

"So not the time for your penchant for dramatic pauses fish lips this isn't The Bold and The Beautiful."

"I just want to make sure I got this right; it looks like she bruised her brain. She can't remember what happened tonight."

"That's quite common with trauma patients." Carole assured them. "Cerebral contusions often heal on their own, Rachel may feel disorientated and sleepy for a while. It could impair her motor skills, memory and speech but that's only in certain cases and based on the point of impact I would say it's not something we need to worry about."

"Does that mean she'll be getting out of here soon?"

"They'll need to put her on medication to reduce the pressure and she'll have to be closely monitored. They'll keep her in overnight at least." She replied, taking that night nurse practitioner classes really were worth it.

"Thank you Carole." Hiram said. "You've been remarkably calm through all this, I feel like I could cry at any minute."

"I'm a nurse, we're trained to be calm." She replied. "If I switch into mother mode believe me I would be falling apart. I always thought of Rachel as the daughter I never had."

"Well it is certainly nice to know we aren't the only ones who are feeling helpless." Leroy said warmly. "I think my heart just about stopped when she opened her eyes. I know some people might think we're overreacting to what could be called just a bump on the head but someone left our daughter bleeding on the floor, who knows what could have been if Tina hadn't been there."

"As to what Blaine was telling you all." Hiram started. "It is true that we could file several lawsuits against Miss Fabray, considering the mountain of video that Jacob Ben Isreal has taken, Rachel's diary as well as several witnesses who can testify as to the treatment our daughter has received at the hands of this Quinn girl, there is no doubt that Rachel would be rewarded handsomely and Quinn punished severely."

"Like I said bitch is toast." Santana repeated. "I know how Quinn operates, if she goes down she will name every other person that ever teased Berry or threw a slushee at her."

"Pretty much every single person in this room fits that bill, well except for Blaine and Mike." Kurt pointed out.

"Ahem." Leroy interrupted. "As my husband was saying, we **could** press charges but we have raised a very independent and special girl and as such she will be determining our next course of action. None of you will try to sway her decision and once it's been made you will accept it and you will respect it."

"But-"

"You will respect it." Hiram said slowly.

"We'll respect it." Santana said trying to hide that little smirk that so often adorned her face.

"And you wont take matters into your own hands and deal with Quinn." Mr Schuester pushed forward recognising the glint in her eyes. "No cutting, no hitting, no slushee facials, no setting other students on her-"

"Yeah we get it." Mercedes snapped. "We'll set out tea and dumplings and congratulate her on a job almost done."

"That's not what Mr Schuester is saying." Carole tried. "This girl has made a mistake-"

"More than one." Kurt mumbled.

"Noah Puckerman?" The police officer asked zeroing in on the mo-hawk. "We're ready for you now."

"Quinn has barely said a word to me since she popped out our baby." Puck said to the officer making his way to the door. "You'd be better off looking for wherever the best place to increase your popularity is, she'll be there."

"Wait!" Finn called out. "Her sister. If she panicked she probably called her sister, they've been close since babygate and Quinn's dad threw her out. She used to bitch at me for not having a good car that she could take to visit her."

"Sounds like a real charmer." The second officer said dryly. "We're going to need this sister's full name number and address."

"Her name's Fannie."

"Frannie." Puck corrected. "She lives in Toledo, I can give you her number."

"You can remember all that from last year?" Brittany asked surprised.

"You'd have the number memorised if you had a hormonal girl screaming at you 24/7 and the only thing that calmed her down was her big sister." Puck said defensively. "Finn's right, she's probably at Frannie's house."

"Toledo is at least an hour away." Mike pointed out. "We've been here for almost three, Quinn's probably already there."

"Well she's not in the school." Santana announced. "SOMEbody anonymously text Coach Sylvester and told her it was Quinn that washed her white tracksuit with her red one and turned it pink. She and Becky searched every room while everyone else was locked in the gym, it's clean. She did find Quinn's prom dress and shoes in the girl's locker room, her spare clothes weren't in her locker."

"I believe these kids have done your job for you gentlemen." Leroy coughed. "Now do I need to put in a call to the police chief in Toledo or will you two be doing that now?"

"I can get my mum's minivan." Lauren volunteered. "We can go there and bring her back for you, in more or less one piece."

"Does she need to have all her hair?"

"You girls will stay here with the officer outside." Officer Henderson said sternly. "Mr Berry we advise you to keep your phone on, we will call you when we know something more."

Santana made a rude gesture to his back muttering about pigs and bacon.

"Carole Hudson?" Doctor Guerin called out. "Rachel's asking for you."

Finn looked momentarily bewildered tightening his grip on his mother's hand.

"I'll let her know you're here honey."

"Just tell her I'm not going anywhere." He whispered. "And give her this."

It was his iPod, it wasn't much but he figured since he couldn't be in there to comfort her she might take comfort from his music. And he would take comfort in knowing that something of his was bringing comfort to her. Carole smiled, she's raised a good boy, he just forgot sometimes that he was.

_GLEE!_

Carole didn't return to the waiting room until over an hour later; Kurt was still wide awake and seemed to be lecturing Finn who was ashen faced and near tears, Puck and Santana were also in deep conversation while everyone else seemed to be on the verge of sleep.

"Rachel's asleep." She said announcing her presence.

"Is she okay?" Mr Schue asked sipping from his ice cold coffee and grimacing; the cops had left forty minutes earlier. No one was treating this like a little slap between high schoolers, it was being treated like attempted murder. One of his kids purposefully hurt another one of his kids; and it could have ended tragically. To say he felt like scum was an understatement, he kept thinking over the last two years, wondering if there was something he could have done to stop the animosity between Quinn and Rachel.

"She's fine." Carole answered. "Like they thought originally there is bruising, she'll be sore for a while and experience the symptoms I mentioned earlier. They had to cut some of her hair for the stitches but I presume Kurt will supply Rachel with enough hats and head scarves to last a lifetime."

"I've already mentally compiled a list of styles that would flatter her face shape."

"Doctor Guerin gave her something to help with the nausea, she'll be out for a while. She appreciate you guys being here but she also wants you all to go home, it's your prom night. She said at least you guys should be able to have some fun."

"With all due respect Mrs H squared." Artie began. "I don't think any of us would be able to just go out and party while one of us is in a hospital bed."

"Well then at least go home and get some rest in a real bed."

"I don't really want to be alone." Tina said blinking her heavy eyelids. "I don't think any of us should be."

"They can stay at our place." Kurt volunteered. "We're exhausted so you don't have to worry about any hanky panky and like Tina said, no one really wants to be alone."

"That's fine with me." She yawned. "But please let your parents know where you are, they wont care that you're calling at two am, when it comes to their child it doesn't matter."

Mercedes and Sam helped corral everyone towards the door lucky he only lived a ten minute walk from the hospital, of course in Lima practically everything was just a ten minute walk.

"Frankenteen you going?" Santana asked not moving from her chair.

"No way."

"Well lookie here, maybe you're not the loser I pegged you for." She smirked, in her way it was an acknowledgement on respect, sort of.

"I'm not going either." Kurt declared. "She's my best friend."

"Someone has to go back to the house." Puck pointed out, he too made no signs of moving.

"I think out of the four of us we all know who she would want here." Kurt retorted.

The Misters Berry intervened, unsurprisingly they were wide awake.

"You can all stay." Leroy told them. "I'm sure Mercedes can act as hostess, after all the time she and Rachel spend at your house I'm not entirely sure they don't already live there."

"Thanks Papa Berry." Puck said softly.

"You're quite welcome Noah." Hiram replied. "Have you worked out your apology yet?"

Puck looked up shocked, why he was surprised at a Berry being blunt was beyond bizarre, Rachel had to have learnt it somewhere after all.

"How did you-"

"I'm a father, a husband and I was once a teenage boy."

"What my husband is trying to say is that he knows how you think." Leroy explained. "Right now you are feeling guilty over Quinn hurting Rachel. Guilty for not sticking up for her more, for taking advantage of her when she was vulnerable after learning about Finn's tryst."

"Which brings us to Santana." Hiram took over. "You feel responsible for the chain of events, you feel guilt over your treatment of our daughter."

"You a shrink?" She asked.

"No."

"I don't feel guilty." She stated. "I just told Berry the truth, I may have called her names and she may not have been my favourite person but even I thought she deserved better than Frankenteen, so I told. I taunted and I teased her but she finally realised she could do so much better than settle for that milk dud."

"You messed up our relationship for your own amusement don't try to act like you were looking out for her." Finn spat out. "The only person you care about is yourself."

"Look I may not like the midget but I respect her." Santana yelled back. "She knows what she wants and she goes after it, I can respect that. What I can't respect is watching someone who can be so opinionated, bossy and domineering turn into a pathetic doormat because of some stupid overgrown hormone. And don't act like this is all on me, I gave you the chance to man up and like the dick that you are you did nothing."

"It seems to me that you may be harbouring a little guilt." Leroy commented. "Guilt doesn't make you weak Santana, it makes you human."

"Shouldn't you be psychoanalysing Hudson?"

"Finn knows exactly why he's here, Kurt made sure to hammer than into him for over an hour." Hiram said. "And Blaine mentioned something to do with Rachel's diary, I can only deduce that Finn is feeling more guilt than he ever dreamed of. He has more to atone for with our daughter than you can imagine."

"Than why haven't you tried to kill him?" Puck asked. "After the way St. Jackass dissed her last year I thought for sure you guys would have a rented space tricked out for torture with Finn's name all over it."

"Because Rachel made mistakes too, they both did." Leroy chuckled. "You all seem to forget that your are teenagers and like Shakespeare said the course of true love never did run smooth. Rachel may be my little girl but she made poor choices that she deeply regrets, neither of you were innocent victims, you both played a part."

"So if my boy Finn dumped Q, grovelled to Rachel you'd just let them get back together?" Puck whistled. "Obviously you aren't familiar with my mama's legendary grudge holding. I still can't go to Lima Freeze since that check out chick short changed us $1."

"We all make stupid mistakes as teenagers, it's whether we learn from them that matters."

"No seriously you guys took Psych 101 didn't you?"

"We are an interracial gay couple raising our daughter in the suburbs." Hiram reminded Santana. "We've been in therapy for a long time. If we held a grudge every time someone we cared about made a mistake we would have a much quieter social life in which we never left the house."

"That being said." Leroy took the moment to crack his fingers. "I do take my daughter's happiness very seriously and I hope each of you will strive to ensure that she is happy from now on."

"I still think she can do better than Finn Dudson." Santana admitted. "But if she wants to get back together with him I wont try to break them up. I don't want to be the reason someone else ends up in the hospital, I'll still be keeping it real, I'll just try to keep it tactful."

"I'm very glad to hear that, the world needs honest people." Hiram said approvingly. "And I sincerely hope you continue to use your blunt honesty on the bullies at McKinley who would like to continue to prey on people they deem less than cool."

"Du'h, I did create the bully whips. I've got her back." Santana promised. "And this time she wont have to worry about me jamming a knife in it."

"After this I doubt she'll be able to walk down the hall without everyone flanking her." Puck added.

"I'm not letting her out of my sight." Kurt said darkly. "I've already mentally designed a bracelet that will act as a tracker at all times."

"And I'm sure you'll inform Rachel of this plan beforehand?" Leroy chuckled. "You can't just lo-jack our daughter."

"What she doesn't know can't hurt her." Kurt replied glibly, Puck snorted a laugh which made Santana cackle.

"Nice work Hummel you made me forget we were in the hospital for a second." Puck turned to Finn hoping to see even the ghost of a smile, of course he didn't see that. Just his friend staring at the door looking completely lost, not in thought or in any other context, just lost.

_GLEE!_

It would have been comical in any other situation. Santana was curled up in her chair, Puck's jacket acting as a blanket while Puck slept in front of her on the floor his head in Kurt's lap who was drooling on his suit jacket. Finn was awake and clutching a crumbled coffee cup like it was the only thing keeping him sane. Rachel's dads were nowhere to be seen, probably with the doctors or even the girl herself.

"Your mum said to tell you she was going to come by later with a change of clothes for you and Kurt." Mike said taking the seat next to Finn. "Any news?"

"Not since last night." He replied quietly. "Her dads are talking with the accountants, Hiram said they wanted to keep busy."

"He looks so peaceful when he's asleep." Mercedes remarked poking at Puck with her toe. "Too bad he ruins that by waking up."

Puck swatted at Mercedes foot rolling over and effectively off Kurt's lap waking himself up. The look of disappointment on his face easily showed what he was thinking, hoping, wishing; that this was all a dream.

"Rachel?" He asked his eyes seeking out Finn, just by his friends body language he could tell no news had come in.

"We bought coffee and bagels." Blaine offered, Santana practically swallowing hers in one gulp before tearing into a poppyseed bagel.

"Did you guys sleep okay?" Tina asked leaning over to rub Kurt's shoulder, he was trying rather unsuccessfully to make it stop aching himself.

"I thought doctors only yelled STAT! On ER." Santana yawned. "Everytime someone coded they announced it over the PA, it would have been annoying if we weren't all paranoid they were going to give Berry's room number."

"I swear I thought Finn was going to snap the arm of his chair." Puck whispered. "He hasn't moved, not even to pee or nothing."

"That's not good." Artie mumbled. "What happened after we left?"

"Nothing." Kurt answered. "We mostly talked about Rachel, we haven't heard anymore from the police, any word on Quinn?"

"Brittany tried her cell a bunch of times." Mercedes said through a mouthful of donut. "That girl has a mouth that could make Chris Rock blush when she wants to."

"Maybe we were wrong." Lauren mused. "How close is she to her sister anyway?"

"She would have gone there." Puck said confidently. "Maybe the Berrys' have heard something by now."

The group nodded their attempts at idle chit chat being smacked down by the stark white walls and constant noises from the hospital, and the smell. That god awful hospital smell.

"I always wondered why they had plastic plants." Brittany blurted out. "How can we trust them to keep us alive if they don't trust themselves to keep a plant alive."

Kurt's loud laugh pierced the air, Mercedes giggle toppling over his. Brittany frowned not understanding what was so funny.

"They keep plants around because they're meant to encourage positive attitudes but live ones can be dangerous to their health so hospitals keep fake plants." Lauren explained. "Personally I find fake plants creepy, I always feel like they're spies waiting 'til we are at our weakest before taking over."

Puck smirked proudly at his girl and she winked back at him.

"What it surprises you guys that my girl's a conspiracy theorist?"

"No but it does surprise me that you know the word theorist." Kurt said calmly. "I should record this for Rachel, she's be killing me that we had all this time and nobody tried to use it as a chance to practice for Nationals."

"We'd already be in paediatrics entertaining the kids." Tina added with a smile.

"Puck and Sam with their guitars while Mike and Brittany danced with the kids."

"And Finn used toilet pans as make-shift drums."

The absurdity of the image earned a ripple of laughter and it was the last hint of smiles that greeted a very tired Hiram as he re-entered the room.

"Rachel's awake and demanding an audience with Tina." Hiram recited obviously verbatim. "She's still not allowed more than three visitors at a time so I'd suggest you split yourselves into groups." He left again rather abruptly obviously wanting to be with Rachel as much as possible.

Whether consciously or not everyone sort of drifted into threes; Blaine, Kurt and Mercedes in one, Santana, Brittany and Artie in another, Puck, Lauren and Sam in the third leaving Mike still next to Finn and Tina already out the door towards Rachel's room.

"I think he needs to go in next." Santana nodded towards Finn. "Alone." She arched an eyebrow daring anyone to disagree with her.

"Then us." Kurt volunteered. "Puck's group next, then you and Mike can sneak in with one of us."

"I'll call Mr. Schue, let him know she can have visitors." Mike offered. "Did anyone think about calling Shelby?"

"No." Finn's voice came out surprisingly strong and steady. "Rachel doesn't want anything to do with her. She's hurt her enough."

"Sorry, I just thought she would want to know." Mike apologized scratching his ears that were now bright red.

"She didn't care for the first sixteen years of her life or after she met Rachel for that matter." Kurt interjected. "Rachel owes her nothing, Shelby however owes a hell of a lot to her and I don't mean the year of therapy Shelby's rejection has undoubtedly caused her."

"Shelby has no legal rights to Rachel and as far as we and our daughter are concerned she has no familial rights either. Rachel expressed to us that she has no desire to have Shelby in her life and she specifically requested that she be kept out of life unless strictly necessary and seeing as she doesn't need an organ this doesn't qualify."

Lauren snorted, well she tried to cover it and no one questioned her about it. It was funny, she had thought, Rachel's tormentor had given her baby to Rachel's mother; it was like a giant cosmic joke. Take the two people in the world who had caused her the most pain and tie them together forever so she could never escape them. God obviously had a sick sense of humour.

"This dress was so not meant to be used as pjs." Santana sighed pulling at the stiff fabric. "Britts did you bring me clothes?"

The blonde nodded and handed over the black bag covered in red hearts., she accepted them quietly and slipped out to change the once gorgeous red dress now rumpled and stained with drool around the ends.

"Carole's bringing some of Finn's old sweats for you." Artie told Puck who just waved him off not caring that his rented tux was currently looking worse for wear.

"Tina's been in there a while."

"Chill dude it's been ten minutes." Sam said looking at his watch. "Tina was the one in there with her last night, she probably just wants to talk to her about before Kurt freaks out on her."

"I almost lost my musical soul mate!" Kurt practically shrieked. "I'm just as shocked as any of you that I have bonded so closely with Rachel but I know her now, not just the persona she lets you see. She is an amazing friend and because of that dye job I almost lost her!"

"Nice work Evans." Mercedes patted him on the back. "You unleashed the kraken."

Sam not understanding the reference watched while Mercedes gently calmed her friend down, it was a mixture of soft words, reminding him that he was crying on silk and a few choice words of hardening up for their girl. He marvelled at how easily she could control the situation and how obvious it was that she meant every word, she cared so freely for her friends and didn't care if people knew it. That was refreshing since being in the popular group basically meant not showing feelings unless they were pre-approved.

Tina walked back in slowly the tear tracks down her face the first thing anyone noticed. She immediately sought comfort in her boyfriend proceeding to heave out words that only a select few were able to translate.

"What is she saying?" Artie whispered straining to understand Tina's crying babble.

"It's crying girl talk." Blaine advised. "I'm still learning but Kurt's fluent."

"Of course why didn't I know that?" Puck remarked sarcastically wincing form the force of Lauren's slap over the back of his head.

"She what?" Mercedes yelled. "Aw hell no!"

"That bitch!"

"Poor Rachel!"

"Ok seriously one of you better start translating!" Puck threatened.

"Rachel can't remember what happened last night." Mercedes explained. "The last thing she remembers is telling Jesse to leave after he fought with Finn."

"She told Jesse to leave?"

"After Sue threw him out she called him and he was pissed and said something about Finn being a psycho and a Lima loser while they were destined for stardom together." Kurt rolled his eyes. "She got mad and told him to leave and to lose her number because she didn't want negative people like him in her life."

"Yeah I'm more focussed on the bitch part." Mike admitted. "Who were you calling a bitch."

"Quinn." Santana answered her prom dress draped over her arm.

"She's psychic!" Brittany gasped.

"Well that and Quinn's the reason she's in hospital." Sam pointed out brushing his hair back from his face.

"But if she doesn't remember Quinn slapping her why would Rachel call her a bitch?"

"She wouldn't." Mercedes answered in a way that made you feel like an idiot. "She told Tina something else that just proves that she's a self-centred bitch with delusions of her own pathetic life."

"Someone pissed off the Hurricane Jones." Puck mumbled under his breath, he'd seen her pissed off before, it was in a word; terrifying.

"What happened?" Mike, Artie and Sam managed to yell at the same time sheepishly grinning at their collective lameness.

"I think Finn needs to hear from Rachel first." Tina sputtered. "She wants to see you."

His shoes felt like they were made from lead and his body was sluggish with exhaustion and yet he managed to move from his chair with remarkable speed, Kurt later said he was surprised not to just see his outline in smoke.

"Well now that he's gone what's the dirt?"

The girls plus Kurt exchanged a conversation that seemed to consist solely of eyebrow raises, crinkling of the mouth and shaking their heads.

"So it happened when Quinn volunteered to help Rachel write that song, she helped alright." Kurt began beckoning everyone forward.

_GLEE!_

Hospital gowns were itchy. Her skin was practically raw from scratching at her arms, hopefully she would be able to leave today, she could be very persuasive when she wanted to be. Her head was sore, her neck stiff and her mind foggy. Tina had filled her in on the more pertinent details and if the situation hadn't ended in hospital she might have even appreciated the drama of it. But as it were she was just numb. She really didn't feel anything. Not sad, not hurt, not angry. Just numb. Like somehow Quinn had managed to slap the feelings out of her. She wanted them back.

"Rachel?"

She smiled slightly, it actually kind of hurt. She stared at the door just staring at his lumpy shape masked by the small window in the door. It was blurry due to his nervous habit of jiggling up and down when he was nervous.

"Yes Finn?"

He opened the door and smiled sheepishly at her, it was kind of silly to knock on the hospital room door- where else would she be? Instead of taking either of the seats pulled close to the bed he sat carefully down next to her on the bed pulling her hands towards him and carefully tracing her palm like he was trying to memorise the lines.

"I'm sorry."

He wasn't looking into her eyes yet, the shame coming off him in waves making his shoulders droop and his entire body angel downwards.

"For what? You didn't slap me." Rachel said confused, did something else happen? It would be just her luck that something major happened between her and Finn and she couldn't remember it.

"It was my fault. If I hadn't gotten so jealous of Jesse then Quinn wouldn't have gotten pissed off about me ruining our chances for Prom Court and she wouldn't have hit you. She was more pissed off about prom than the fact that I was jealous." He met her eyes and felt a stab of pain at the anguish in her eyes. "I hated him being there with you, touching you, making you smile. It killed me."

"I know the feeling." She smiled wanly, too bad that slap didn't remove the memories of Finn and Quinn hand-in-hand, kissing, singing together, sharing small smiles and jokes that only make sense to each other.

"And I hate that I put you through that. I hate that I was such an idiot." Finn rubbed his hair trying to distract his mind to keep the angry tears from coming through. "I should have listened to you, talked to you instead of just getting angry."

"You were more than entitled to be angry Finn. I hurt you and you can't blame yourself for everything that's happened, I'm at fault too." She bit her lip picking over her words carefully. "We both made mistakes, I can only hope we learn from them."

"Your dads told me that too." He chuckled slightly. "I guess I know where your big brain comes from."

"Well my big brain is bruised and I'm still a little concussed. As much as I would like to continue this conversation I think it would be best that we discussed it at a later time when emotions aren't so heightened. I'd hate for either of us to say or do something that we would regret later."

"Rach, the only thing I regret is ever thinking I could be in love with Quinn. I care for her but I could never love her when I have such intense feelings for you, feelings that scare the hell out of me and that I've finally realised I don't want to lose." He said honestly lacing their fingers together and resting his head on her chest comforted by her heartbeat. "Feelings that I can't forget, I won't let myself."

"You don't mean that Finn." Rachel said gently. "Like I said before you're tired and your emotions are all over the place. I'm sure after a good night's sleep you'll forget all about those supposed feelings and I'll still be the girl that you tried to love but couldn't because Quinn is your first love."

"Quinn was my first girlfriend but she wasn't my first love and even if she hadn't hurt you I was going to break up with her. I got kicked out of prom because I started a fight with my ex-girlfriend's date. It shouldn't have bothered me but it did, I didn't care when Jesse complimented Quinn and insulted me, but my blood boiled the second I saw his lips near you." He was pleading with her, tears soaking into the already paper thin hospital gown.

"Finn stop." She pushed at his head until she could see his eyes, they were wet with tears something she was sure her own eyes were. "Just think about what you're saying, about the circumstances. Where was this 24 hours ago?"

"It's the truth. And I don't care if you don't believe me because I'm not going to stop until you realise that you are my first and only love." He declared standing up, he pressed a swift kiss to her forehead pretending not to notice the tears peaking out of her eyes. "I'll be back, this isn't over Rach, it never will be."

He was out the door before she could say anything else. The tears just began to spill down her face when Kurt, Blaine and Mercedes burst through the door. Kurt's eyes narrowed and he took a step back.

"I'll kill him!"

_GLEE!_

He had heard Kurt's exclamation and walked faster towards the exit, he may be bigger than his step-brother but Kurt was like a pit bull when it came to the people he loved, he was creative with his punishments too. He still couldn't drink from pre-opened water bottles.

"Finn! How is she?" Sam called out loitering at the door, instead of answering he kept going he was on a mission. Like the Blues Brothers.

"I thought you were in with Rachel?" Leroy said surprised at the fast walking boy who was practically tearing through the hospital halls.

"I was." Finn replied slowing to a stop. "I tried to talk to her but she kept saying something about emotions being tall and not meaning what we said."

"I take it you said something that she was unwilling to believe." Leroy deduced easily.

"Well yeah, I told her I still loved her and she looked at me like I had three heads."

"You have to remember that Rachel has been through something traumatic and her ability to cope with this situation might not be to her usual standard."

"I just wish I could erase all of this, go back to before Christmas and make things right."

"Hindsight. It's like foresight but without a future." Leroy quoted. "Everything is always clearer afterwards Finn, baring a specially equipped DeLorean I don't see that time travel plan of yours panning out. So what is your back-up?"

"I'm going to the police station to break up with Quinn." Finn answered automatically. "Then I'm going to prove to Rachel that I'm in love with her and I made mistake with Quinn."

"May I offer you some advice?"

"Of course." No one knew Rachel better than her fathers, she told them everything. He'd learned that the hard way.

"Give her time." Leroy patted his shoulder. "Be there for her as her friend. Help her and show her that you care but don't pressure her. From what I remember each time you two were in a relationship it was immediately after ending another relationship. I think perhaps you both need time to come to grips with yourselves before you can move on together."

"I just told her that I was going to show her that we are meant to be together and now you're saying I should just back off?" Finn checked.

"Talk to her, tell her exactly what I told you. Before you can work together you need to work separately." Leroy almost chuckled at the bewildered expression on the teen's face. "Did you know Hiram and I were friends for three years before one of us was brave enough to ask the other out? Our friendship blossomed into the relationship we have now and I don't regret those three years because it gave us the opportunity to know each other without the pressure of a relationship."

"I know it makes sense but I just want to be with her all the time."

"That's love. Don't let people belittle what you two share because I can see it in your eyes and I can see it in hers. You were just lucky enough to discover it early in life. And if that means I don't have to worry about the kind of boys my girl is bringing home for the next ten years, than I am very okay with it."

"Now I'm confused."

"I have no doubts that eventually you two will find your way to each other again. But take the time to let all of the scars from the last year heal, if you try without really talking every thing through you are doomed to fail."

"Kurt said that to me after Regionals. Told me that talking was the only way to fix things. I didn't listen." Finn smiled ruefully.

"You will this time if you want any hope of reconciling with my daughter for good." Leroy shook his head. "I mean it, I don't want to see my girl go through that heartache again."

"I love her, I just didn't realise how much. I know this is my last shot. Third time lucky?" He joked lightly.

"You should get going, the police called a little while ago to say that Quinn was in their custody but they hadn't charged her yet. She's not talking and her sister will make sure of that."

"She's a lawyer." He remembered, it was one of those things that Quinn always bragged about.

"I still need to talk to Rachel about what she wants to do but I doubt she'll want to press charges and since she is sixteen we can't force her to." Leroy sighed. "We'll be consulting with both our lawyers and Rachel's personal therapist to see what they recommend."

"Can you tell her that we talked? That I'm not giving up but I'll respect what she wants?" He asked. "There's no way Kurt or Mercedes are letting me back in that room for a while."

"I'll give her the cliffs notes but you will have to do the heavy lifting. I'll leave your name on the approved visitors list, you can come back tonight after regular visiting hours are over, you two can talk properly then."

"Thank you Mr Berry, just thank you."

Leroy just nodded giving his best grip as he shook Finn's hand. He wasn't naïve, they were in high school and the odds of their relationship working out were slim. But Rachel was driven, determined and she got what she wanted. And when she loved something she would stop at nothing to get it. It seemed that particular trait of Rachel's had rubbed off on Finn. Thank god it was that and not her penchant for knee high socks.

_GLEE! _

She was still in her prom dress. Probably not the first thing he should have noticed but he was shocked that less than 24 hours ago he was telling this girl that she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen and now the sight of her made him feel sick.

"Finn!" Quinn yelled rushing towards him pushing past her sister. He quickly sidestepped her embrace and moved around the table careful to put distance between them.

"Don't touch me." He said harshly. "I can't even stand to look at you. What is wrong with you Quinn? Is it really so hard to be a decent human being? What the hell happened to make you such a bitch?"

"Excuse me-"

"No you don't get to make excuses because there aren't any. You are mean and selfish. You're a bully Quinn. I'm through with you in a sick way I'm grateful that I went back to you because now I know without a doubt that what we had was nothing compared to what I had with Rachel."

"It always comes back to that hobbit with you!" Quinn snarled. "Your darling Rachel, she's not exactly an innocent rose!"

"No she's not but she isn't a manipulative cow who has to tear other people down just to feel better about herself. And you know what's really sick about that? You know how it feels, you know how horrible that is and you do it anyway. I guess it doesn't matter that you got a nose job, lost weight and dyed your hair, you'll always be ugly."

"She's going to need another nose job in a minute." Santana said announcing her presence. "You sadistic mole! What the hell is wrong with you? She could have died, **died**! Do you not get that? You need to get over yourself Quinn, he did, Puck did, Sam did. Hell everyone else has. Stop trying to reclaim your former glory because it's not going to work. You're not the virginal bible thumper, you're the slut who got knocked up by her boyfriend's best friend and lied about it. And that's all on you. Quit blaming everyone else for your own damn problems, maybe if you weren't such a psychopathic wannabe barbie doll people wouldn't want to leave you behind."

"Where do you get off! You're the self-appointed Queen of Mean you practically invented the torturing manhands club!"

"I keep it real Quinn, I don't try to kill people."

Finn looked between the two girls, he was almost surprised Santana hadn't started spewing fire, she looked that pissed. Quinn looked pissed too, but she fought dirty, she'd go for Santana's extensions or punch her in the boob.

"Santana we should get back to the hospital." Finn called out trying to break the heated glaring match the two were engaged in. "I've said what I needed to."

"For once you're right Hudson." Santana flicked her hair smirking at Quinn's involuntary jerk back. "We've got to get back to Berry and make sure she doesn't do something stupid like not press charges. I bet a stuck-up, prissy bitch like you would be real popular around the cell block."

"Please, she only got what she deserved!" Quinn spat out. "She ruined my life!"

"No that was you remember?" Finn snapped back.

"Right about the time you opened your legs for Puckerman and were stupid enough to think you could lie and get away with it!" Santana added helpfully. "Oh and Lauren wanted me to pass along a message."

Quinn looked at Santana completely nonplussed, it was like she didn't even care that she was in a police station most likely about to be charged with at the very least intent to cause harm.

"Come near Hudson, Berry or any of us ever again and she will put you in that cannon that Coach Sylvester bought and send you back to the cesspool of creation you crawled out of."

Santana blew Quinn a kiss and stalked to the door pulling it open before gesturing for Finn to follow her.

"We got places to be Andre the Giant."

Finn followed eagerly glad to be done with Quinn finally. He was momentarily blinded a flash of red and white and the distinct scowl he was all too familiar with.

"She called Coach Sylvester?" Finn asked dumbly staring at the cheer-leading coach who was standing outside the room and arguing with a police officer with a fierceness she usually reserved for Mr. Schuester.

"No I did." Santana smiled saucily. "If there's one thing Coach Sylvester hates more that Mr. Schue's hair, it's bullying. Ironic since she's the biggest bully ever."

Finn snorted his agreement, Coach Sylvester's taunts could be colder than a slushee facial.

"She was beyond pissed when I called to inform that Quinn had been found and was refusing to say anything. She'll get a signed confession, apology and probably the last of the hush money Quinn's dad paid her mom handed over to Rachel before we even make it back to the hospital."

"You should run for President." Finn said admiringly. "When you use your powers for good you're kind of cool."

"It was fun seeing someone who deserved it get bitten in the ass for once." Santana agreed. "Who knows? One day you might be voting for President Lopez, you know that has a nice ring to it."

"You've got my vote." Finn said seriously, he couldn't imagine a single person sane enough to go to war with Santana, who knows? Maybe she could achieve that world peace thing all those pageant girls blabbed on about.

_GLEE! _

For a girl who wanted to live her life in the spotlight she was going crazy with all the attention. After three mind-numbing days in the hospital she had finally convinced her doctor that since all she was doing was lying in bed that she was perfectly capable of doing that at home. After Carole volunteered to check in on her twice a day the doctor okayed it, albeit unwillingly. Of course Carole really needn't bothered since Kurt and Mercedes arranged a schedule that ensured she was almost never alone. Whoever had a free period spent it at her house, Kurt would bring her schoolwork over at the end of everyday, on Monday night's Puck and Lauren came over, on Tuesday's it was Brittany and Artie, Wednesday's were Mike and Tina, Thursday's Sam and Santana and Friday's were of course Kurt and Mercedes. Blaine would usually show up on the weekends and Finn tended to come over with his mom daily always bringing her something new. The first day it was music sheets, the next day a flower.

"How are you feeling today sweetie?" Carole greeted. Rachel tried not to wince, she hated being asked that considering it was a question she was asked at least a dozen times a day.

"I'm great." She replied, she'd obliged her father's demand that she stay in bed and donned her pyjamas but surrounding her were pages and pages of music and her laptop was open near her. "I haven't had any headaches in a week and my nausea is completely gone."

"That's fantastic, Dr. Guerin wants you to come back in for another head scan to see how much the swelling has gone done." Carole told her. "Finn don't just loiter in the doorway, make yourself useful and get Rachel a glass of water."

Finn waved awkwardly at Rachel, a blush tinting his ears a burning shade of red, she was surprised her stairs weren't sopping wet with the speed at which he ran down them and back up with her water.

"Here you go." He handed the water over trying not to drop it when their fingers brushed.

"Thank you Finn." She said softly; after Kurt had calmed down enough to listen to what had caused Rachel to burst into tears he vowed to get to the bottom of what was going through Finn's mind. She still didn't believe that he was reacting from anything but guilt which she explained to each and every glee clubber when they visited; according to them in a rare unanimous opinion he was 'finally owning up to being a jack hole and kissing your ass that he loves so much' those were Santana's words and apart from Puck the others had put it less crudely.

"Hi." He managed to spit out handing her the daisy he'd picked from the garden on his way up the steps, rather clumsily he tucked it behind her ear earning the smallest of smiles.

"I have to call Doctor Guerin, Finn be a dear and entertain Rachel for a few minutes."

Carole padded down the stairs disappearing into one of the rooms on the lower level of the house leaving two two awkward teens alone.

"Kurt said you've been talking with your therapist about the charges against Quinn."

"Yeah I still don't know whether I can do it. Maybe I'm naïve but I just don't believe she meant to cause me that amount of harm, I think in that situation she reacted out of shock not with malicious intent." Rachel said slowly as though she was picking her words very carefully.

"You always think better of people than they deserve." He replied, he has to consciously sit on his hand to keep from reaching out and grabbing hers.

"Considering what happened and the statements everyone gave about Quinn and her treatment of me in the past our attorney advised us that our case is strong enough for her to be sent to a juvenile detention facility but I know I would hate myself if anything happened to her as a result of me. And I don't think incarceration with violent offenders will benefit her, I'd rather she seek real help for her problems rather than ship her off out of sight, out of mind."

"She left you bleeding on the floor, you could have died!" Finn exclaimed. "And instead of wanting the girl who did it to rot you want to get her help?"

"Well obviously something caused her to lash out at me, I doubt she's dealt with everything that happened with Beth and given her recent outing as a former bully victim I just feel the best way to deal with all of this is to insure she gets the help she needs. I doubt being confined in a prison like situation will help her in ways that therapy can."

"After everything she's done you want to let her get away with a slap on the wrist?"

"No, I've given it some thought and I think she should be put on a good behaviour bond until she finishes high school, I also think she should attend therapy sessions and group counselling. But mostly I think she should be forced to deal with the repercussions of bullying, volunteer at a crisis centre that aids in helping bully victims recover, or at a help line for abused children. I think she needs to understand how her actions hurt other people since she has forgotten her own experiences when she was at the bottom of the social food chain." Rachel explained picking invisible fluff from her blankets. "I want her to stop, not learn new and increasingly violent ways to torture me. I'd rather be afraid of what she says than worried she's going to shiv me in the lunch line."

"Where did you even hear that word?" Finn asked trying not to laugh at how adorable she looked saying 'shiv'.

"My Dad's were watching _The Wire_ last night." She rolled her eyes. "Of course my thoughts wont matter much when I have Kurt, Santana, Mercedes and even Tina telling me to throw Quinn to the wolves."

Fin scratched his head, he knew his brother was going to kill him when he found out what he was about to say to Rachel.

"You have to do what you can live with. Screw whatever everyone else wants, just do what you can handle."

"That's very good advice Finn, have you been watching Dr. Phil again?"

"My mum tivo'd that and I only watched it that one time!" Finn argued almost pouting but managing to hold it back when he saw Rachel actually smile, too bad it vanished almost as quickly as it appeared. "I got you something."

"More homework?" She guessed adopting nonchalance.

"I figured I kind of owed you a new one since I busted the lock on your old one." He answered handing over the leather bound book with a simple lock on it. Her name was wriitten in crooked glittery letters with hundreds of gold stars covering it. "I wish you had told me all that stuff when we we're dating, I think my superhero power wish would definitely be the power to read people's thoughts."

"That's an invasion of people's privacy." She scolded lightly. "And would you really want to be able to hear Puck's thoughts? The ones he voices are vulgar enough, I shudder to think what he keeps to himself."

"Good point." Finn shuddered. "Still, I shouldn't have read it."

"It's okay, what's the point of writing all of that down if nobody ever gets to read it?" Rachel reasoned. "I appreciate the thought."

"You're welcome." He grabbed her hand, rubbing his thumb across her palm softly before jumping up. "I should check on mum, Brittany and Artie will be here soon. I think Brittany said she was bringing over _Beauty and the Beast_."

"I love that movie." Rachel smiled her hands still clutching the diary. "Tell Carole thank you for me."

"I will." He promised so solemnly it was like he was saying 'I do' on their wedding day. He ambled out the door, he had been going for smoothly but as always his gangliness worked against him, she heard the soft rumble of voices and the front door closing shut a few minutes later.

"Oh Finn." She murmured tracing her fingers across his messy scrawl on the first page of her new journal.

_I'm not great with words but I tried. I know you have doubts about me, about us, about how I feel and I don't want you to ever doubt how completely in love with you I am. This pretty much says it all. Forever yours, Finnfully. _

_Hello, are you still there?_

_This long silence is more than I can bear_

_I know since we ain't got much to say_

_But can you try to hear me out anyway?_

_The space between us just keeps on growing,_

_We both know where we've been but that ain't where we're going  
I can see it in your eyes, girl that you're wondering_

_Will our love still stand the test_

_The answer is yes, yes, yes_

_The answer is yes, yes, yes_

_(Oh God, you're picking up)_

_There's so much static between the two of us, yeah_

_You say I'm tripping, I say you've changed_

_Maybe we both need to stop playing these silly games_

_We gotta open up and tell the truth_

_Just be real with me I promise I'll be real with you_

_If you're still wondering if I'll be there when you need me, girl_

_You'll never have to guess_

_The answer is yes, yes, yes_

_The answer is yes, yes, yes_

_Will I hear you call?_

_Catch you when you fall?_

_The answer is yes_

_Will I always care?_

_Will I still be there?_

_I can write a thousand songs for you_

_I'd still be sure the one or two_

_As the years go on_

_My love stays strong_

_Will I be there to give you my best?_

_Yes, yes, yes._

_The answer is yes, yes, yes_

_Will I still be the one_

_When is all said and done?_

_Will my love for you stay strong?_

_Will we stand the test_

_Till our very last breath?_

_Will I be there as the years go on?_

_Yes, yes, yes, oh yes._

The words were haphazardly written, previous lines scratched out and words misspelled but it touched her. He'd written something for her, for her eyes only and as much as she still doubted him she felt the tiniest of cracks hit her resolve.

GLEE!

Surprisingly it had been Santana that had been the hardest to convince. They still weren't certain they had convinced her, Tina was sure that she would strap herself to the bottom of Rachel's car and show up at the meeting between the lawyers. Knowing Santana it was entirely possible which was why they had arranged for all of them to meet at Breadsticks while they waited for the outcome of the meeting.

"It was meant to be over fifteen minutes ago, Lima isn't that big she should be here by now." Kurt whined, it had been a tough call between who had been more adamant about going with Rachel to the meeting but Santana had edged him out when she threatened to put a tracking device on Rachel's car.

"Maybe it's a good thing." Tina said optimistically. "Maybe Quinn's lawyer agreed to the terms and they're working out details?"

"I doubt it." Santana snorted. "She still doesn't think she did anything wrong, I doubt Quinn will let her lawyer make a deal, she'd rather take her chances in court."

"Rachel's lawyer has already taken depositions from all of us, Coach Sylvester even provided video evidence. Did you know she had cameras hidden in the choir room?" Mike shuddered. "Jacob Ben Israel even gave up his stalker diary of everything that happens to Rachel."

"Why would she fight it?" Blaine asked confused. "Surely she must realise that she'll end up in a juvenile facility."

"She's deluded enough to think that she could win since 'Rachel deserves it' for ruining her life." Santana mimicked. "She should plead insanity."

"Quinn may be a lot of things but she's not insane." Puck rolled his eyes.

"She did think she could tell a guy that he got her pregnant in a hot tub and not be found out." Lauren reminded everyone. "At the very least she's an idiot and that's a bastard cousin of insane."

"Language Lauren." Rachel reprimanded sliding into the seat next to Kurt who immediately checked her over for any tell-tale signs of a cat fight.

"What happened?"

"Is she going to the clink?"

"Did she confess?"

"Are you going to court?"

"Slow down, she can only answer one question at a time." Mercedes yelled cutting them all of. "Now Diva you better start talking about what went down."

"It was fairly banal." She shrugged playing with the red hat that adorned her head. "Quinn's lawyer and my lawyer spoke, my lawyer laid out our evidence and how we wanted the matter handled, Quinn's lawyer offered a counter, we didn't accept, we reiterated our claim and after her mother and lawyer both talked to her she accepted our offer."

"You make it sound so boring." Sam said with a groan, he lived for lawyer dramas but sadly this wasn't _Boston Legal_ and her lawyer was not Denny Crane. "She didn't say anything to you?"

"She glared and muttered things under her breath but her mother kept her from doing anything. At one point I was certain she was going to jump across the table and rip what's left of my hair out." She patted her hat self-consciously.

"So does that mean she'll be back at McKinley?"

"Yes, starting Monday." Rachel replied. "She's suspended from extra-curricular activities, specifically cheer-leading and glee for the rest of the year. She has to attend mandatory counselling sessions weekly with Miss. Pillsbury and attend group counselling for victims of bullying. The police have granted her a good behaviour bond, as long as she stays out of trouble for the next year when she turns eighteen her record will be sealed."

"So counselling? She almost killed you and all she gets is a couple of sessions of talking?" Santana grunted. "That's bullshit!"

"She also has to complete five hundred hours of community service at Lima County Hospital in the psychiatric ward, specifically the ward for teenagers who have attempted suicide, have eating disorders or depression."

"What is she going to do there?" Brittany wondered aloud.

"Hopefully see firsthand what happens to people who are bullied everyday and aren't strong enough to fight back." Finn spoke up. "Maybe seeing what happens to the person after she gets done tearing them down will help her."

"Well I think it sounds like karmic retribution to me." Kurt opined.

"Me too." Mercedes agreed. "You're a much better person than people give you credit for, if this was me I'd want to be the one to lock her up and throw away the key but you actually want her to get help."

"Quinn lost prom queen got dumped by her boyfriend and can't do glee or cheer-leading, her social standing will be lower than Suzie Peppers. Having to go through the rest of high school being considered lower than the people she would have stepped over for a mentos? To her that is worse than prison." Santana smirked. "Now I'm almost looking forward to Monday."

"She's not going to be in any of your classes is she?" Kurt asked knowing that both Quinn and Rachel were in several AP classes.

"No, she's not meant to be within fifteen feet of me. Her mother offered to switch her to Carmel but she refused."

"Sounds to me like Quinny is still out for blood." Lauren surmised. "She'll probably get the hockey losers to do her dirty work for her, there's no way she's okay with all of this."

"Lauren's right." Artie agreed. "I have the most AP classes with Rachel so I can go with her to class but I wont be much help against a group of jocks."

"You think I'm letting my littlest diva out of my sight?" Kurt asked incredulous. "I already had Principal Figgins match my schedule to Rachel's, the only class we don't share is gym but that's when Mercedes and Lauren will take over."

"My ma said that if I let that little blonde hussy hurt that nice Jewish girl again she'd make me watch _Schindler's List _every day for a month until I understand about standing up for what's right." Puck added. "Me and Finn are going to be like Berry's bodyguards."

"And I sent a blast out to all Bullwhips that Quinn Fabray is to be considered enemy number one, I want to have eyes on her at all times, if blondie sneezes I'll know about it." Santana waves her phone. "Fabray is not getting near Berry without me knowing about it."

"But what about glee?" Mike interrupts. "Don't we need her?"

"Actually no." Blaine answered. "You only need twelve to compete and with Quinn not allowed in the club you still have twelve, if anything you ratio is now even. Not to sound rude but I was surprised that we didn't beat you at Sectionals, no offence to you Sam but her voice wasn't strong enough for a competition. I think the only reason we tied was because Santana killed _Valerie_."

"None taken." Sam mumbled.

"White boy speaks the truth!" Mercedes giggled. "Now if _I_ had sung that song than you know it wouldn't have been a tie!"

"Damn straight!" Kurt agreed patting her hand. "I wonder if Mr. Schuester knows about all of this? Our project for the week will probably be forgiveness or moving on or something."

"He'll definitely turn this into one of his after school special moments he creates to impress Miss. Pillsbury." Santana rolled her eyes. "If he tries to make us do forgiveness than I swear I'm getting up at the next school assembly and singing _Kyle's Mum is a Bitch _substituting Kyle's mum for Quinn."

Puck smothered a snort in spite of himself, he still wasn't on the kill Quinn bandwagon but he was close to jumping on board.

"Well, Quinn's a bitch, she's a big fat bitch, she's the biggest bitch in the whole wide world!" Santana sang smiling wickedly.

"If there ever was a bitch, she's a bitch to all the boys and girls!" Lauren continued bumping fists with Santana.

"Monday she's a bitch, on Tuesday she's a bitch, on Wednesday to Saturday, she's a bitch, then on Sunday, just to be different, she's a super, king, kameha-meha biatch!" Santana and Lauren sang together laughing, laughing so hard they didn't even notice Mike's rapid hand gestures to stop singing, at least not until it was too late.

"I think your boyfriend's having some kind of seizure." Santana said to Tina.

"Actually I think he was indicating that I was standing behind you." Quinn said evenly. "Isn't this just so cute? All the glee club hanging out together."

"Fifteen feet Fabray." Mercedes barked pulling a tape measure from Kurt's bag. "I'm measuring so back your ass up before I call the cops."

"Calm down, I had no idea any of you would be here, I'm having lunch with my mum and sister." She gestured to the blindingly blonde table near the window. "Call me when you realise your mistake Finn."

"He already did, that's why he dumped your liposuctioned ass!" Lauren snapped.

"See you on Monday." Quinn waved goodbye ignore Lauren's insult.

Santana had already pulled out her phone mass messaging her bully whips, the surveillance on Quinn started right now.

"Oh it is so on black box!" She muttered stabbing at her phone. "This is Top dog, Lucy Caboosey has been sighted at Breadsticks, if you're not here in five minutes I'm demoting you to slushee duty."

The rest of the table looked at her but she just smiled.

"I've got this. Don't worry Berry, McKinley is a whole other place when you've got Santana Lopez watching your back."

Rachel smiled faintly, even with all of these insurances she was still dreading her return. She doubted she'd be able to use the girl's bathroom without having a panic attack.

"Are you okay?" Finn asked softly rubbing her hand under the table, she nodded weakly. "Just ignore her, it's what I'm going to do."

Rachel nodded again, somehow she didn't think ignoring the problem was going to help, in fact it may be just what Quinn wanted.

_GLEE! _

She almost wanted to look up and check if there was giant neon arrow pointing at her with a sign that blinked 'LOOK AT ME', Kurt was trying to cheer her up by reminding her that it was good practice for the paparazzi when she was a famous Broadway actress. Somehow she doubted the paparazzi would point and openly gape at her. True to her word at all times one of Santana's bully whip minions could be seen shadowing Rachel, between that and Kurt, Mercedes and Finn constantly at her side she was never alone. Tina and Mercedes had even followed her into the bathroom and waited at the sinks for her, hadn't that been fun.

"So we thought we'd all eat lunch in the choir room kind of like a picnic." Kurt explained leading her into the room, Sam and Puck were already lounging on the floor having a contest over who could throw the most grapes into their mouths in a row. Sam was winning but according to Puck he had an advantage because of his giant mouth.

"Guys I can handle being in the cafeteria, it's not like I've never been slushied before, or had my food thrown on me, or tripped." Rachel pointed out nonetheless taking a seat and pulling the lid off her salad.

"I like your hat Rachel." Brittany complimented stroking the fuzzy pink material. "You should model them on my web show, Lord Tubbington has a lot of hats too, he's in his cowboy phase."

"Fondue for two is the highest rated web show in Ohio." Artie proclaimed loudly. "I helped set up the intro, I think I'm definitely going to pursue a career in directing, I'm looking into UCLA film school."

"And I'm going to major in dance!" Brittany added happily. "Or be a cheerleader for the Lakers."

"I can't decide between Parsons and Julliard." Kurt confessed. "Why can't I be a fashion designing superstar singer?"

"Guys you realise we are just getting out of school right?" Puck asked. "Screw college, I'm hitting the road driving all over with nothing but me and my guitar."

"And hopefully condoms." Santana smirked. "Wouldn't want you to have a little Puck in every port."

"Slut."

"Manwhore."

"Well I'm definitely going to LA." Mercedes declared. "I need me some Hollywood hills."

"I'll probably be stuck in Ohio." Sam said sourly. "Unless I get a scholarship to somewhere my folks can't afford to send me out of state."

"At least your parents aren't trying to force you into their alma mater." Mike groaned. "I don't really see myself fitting in at Princeton."

"You could teach those nerds some of your fly moves." Lauren teased. "I've already got wrestling scholarship offers but I'm thinking LA too."

"And we all know Rachel is New York bound with me." Kurt said happily. "I've already drawn out plans for our apartment, I'm thinking a Breakfast at Tiffany's theme for the lounge room, Broadway for Rachel's room and Buckingham Palace for mine."

"What about you Finn?" Tina asked. "You leaving behind Ohio for some big city?"

"I don't know, with my grades I'll be lucky to scrape into a community college." He admitted.

"What about those music scholarships Miss Pillsbury was talking about?" Kurt asked. "And there's always scholarships for the kids of army veterans, I'd be happy to research it for you. I know my dad would prefer it if I had someone else besides Rachel looking out for me in big bad New York."

"I looked into a few schools there, Manhattan School of Music looks pretty cool. I was thinking of drumming as a career, there are session drummers who are used on albums or I could teach or whatever." Finn answered. "I doubt I could get a football scholarship since our team sucks. I doubt I'd get into Julliard or NYU or anything."

"Maybe if you paid a ringer to take the SAT's for you." Santana suggested completely serious. "I'm definitely going to Columbia for law."

"If this were a really bad TV show we'd all end up on some joint scholarship to some until now unheard of fabulous school." Lauren said.

"And it would have some really lame name like Performing Arts College of Ohio." Tina added. "And it would be the most prestigious performing arts college in all of the USA."

"Everyone knows the best performing arts schools are in New York." Kurt chided them. "Tisch, Julliard need I say more?"

"I need you guys spread out so I can crash on all your couches." Puck said seriously. "And my girl's bed."

Lauren just gave him a look but didn't refute his claim.

"Berry you're unusually quiet, you're freaking me out." Santana called out. "Who would have thought I'd ever voluntarily ask her to talk?"

"My first choice is Julliard of course." She answered automatically, for the moment at least she could forget about Quinn and focus on something else. "I've also looked into CUNY, Tisch and Manhattan like Finn. I've also considered just starting right off by auditioning for off-Broadway and Broadway shows and getting experience first hand, perhaps do school online but I know in the long run that would be a mistake."

"This conversation is getting too close to a meeting with the guidance counsellor." Puck shuddered. "Mum's going out of town for the weekend and taking the brat with her so you know what that means."

"Party at Puck's." Santana smirked. "You're in luck Puckerman, I finally mastered my party punch I call it Santana's Satanic Sauce."

"I doubt I'll be able to go to a large social gathering like that until I'm fifty." Rachel winced self-consciously reaching to touch her stitches. "My fathers' are still hesitant about me being in school."

"Well we could say you're going to Puck's house and just leave out the party element." Mercedes suggested. "If you freak out we can bail and go to Kurt's and have a sleepover."

"Trust me nobody will even think twice about saying something after the threats Santana's been dishing out." Lauren assured her. "One of the cheerios was so freaked out she pulled her hair out of her ponytail and didn't even blink when Sylvester was bitching her out."

"Not even blinking in the face of she who even Satan is scared of?" Artie joked. "You must have gone Lima Heights Adjacent on her ass."

Santana just shrugged quite obviously feigning modesty.

"Uh Puck?" Tina asked. "How many people have you told about this party?"

"You guys, a couple of the guys from the team. Why?" Puck replied craning his neck to see what had Tina so fixated.

"One of them has a big mouth. You just went viral." She handed him her phone which showed the event at Puck's house and a growing number of attendees.

"Well this is either going to be epic." Puck began.

"Or an epic fail." Santana finished smiling like a cheshire cat. Oh yeah, this was going to be fun.

_GLEE! _

Santana was busy mixing the gummy bears into her satanic sauce while Puck was busy hiding all of the valuables in the garage, Mr Schue had surprisingly only brought up the party once where he reminded them all of their no drinking pledge before reiterating that they should call him if they needed a ride somewhere.

"Okay all of that delicate shit is looked away and I've paid off the neighbours to keep their traps shut about the music. Mike's bringing the ice yeah?"

"Uh ah." Santana replied concentrating on the large punch bowl, her recipe had to be exact. "Artie's bringing over his DJ stuff now. You remember to set up the bins?"

"Yeah I swear I was finding bottle caps for six months after the last party I had." Puck chuckled.

"You told bitch face not to show up right? Cos I had to break out some pretty creative threats to make sure none of the losers from the hockey team try anything with Berry tonight. Not that Frankenteen will move more than a foot from her anyway."

"She's on lock down, there's no way her mum is letting her out." Puck answered, he hadn't exactly told her she was considered persona non grata, but you'd have to be pretty dumb not to realise that.

"I've got two bully whips posted outside her house anyway." Santana told him. "If she even tries to shimmy down a drain pipe they'll be hauling her ass back inside before she makes it all the way down."

"I'm guessing those descriptive threats came in handy when you were arranging for those two bully whips to give up their Friday night?"

"It's in the bully whip bylaws that your duty extends beyond the school, until we can be sure that Berry isn't going to be bleeding to death again she's got around the clock protection." Santana smirked. "We weren't the only ways who were freaked out by what happened, nobody likes to think that there's a psycho who could almost kill you sharing their homeroom."

"Mmm that smells like care bears!" Brittany exclaimed bounding into the kitchen. "Sam needs help with the stuff outside."

Puck flexed his muscles and grinned.

"Duty calls ladies."

"Sometimes I don't know why I put up with him." Lauren sighed dumping the bags of chips she had just carried in.

"Because he's a sex shark." Brittany answered easily. "Do you think Rachie is going to come tonight?"

"Last I heard she was being poked and prodded by Kurt and Mercedes in the name of fashion." Lauren answered. "She'll be here, can't say for how long."

"Cold! Cold ice coming through!" Mike yelled making a bee line for the bathroom so he could dump the ice in the tub.

"Ice, ice baby!" Tina sang coming in behind her boyfriend, she was dolled up in a black dress that had a high neckline and a short hemline, paired with a pair of fuck-me boots she looked hot.

"So I guess the lounge room is the dance floor?" Artie observed, the furniture had been hastily pushed against the walls leaving a fairly large square patch of carpet.

"Don't spill anything on the carpet, I'm running out of ways to move the rug to cover the other stains." Puck ordered plugging things in while Artie supervised.

"I make no promises." Sam said holding up his hands. "You got the keg set up yet?"

Puck snapped his fingers, he knew he'd forgotten something. His parties were legendary and for a good reason, yep this was exactly what everyone needed.

_GLEE!_

Rachel tried not to grimace, so far Kurt and Mercedes had been pretty good to her, keeping her make up light and letting her leave her hair curly and artfully pinning a barrette to cover the stitches.

"Absolutely not." She declared staring at the handkerchief Kurt was trying to pass off as a shirt. "If I must attend this social event I will not be turning up dressed as one of Julia Roberts co-workers in _Pretty Woman_!"

"Fine." Kurt scowled turning back to the mounds of clothes that he had purchased earlier on his whirlwind visit to the mall. "I had a feeling you would be unresponsive and I bought this as a back up."

The dress he held up was short, thankfully not short enough that she felt like she was wearing a belt, it was a white with blue and purple splashes of colour and the neckline scooped down just enough to be tasteful without prudish.

"Now that I can wear." She agreed quickly pulling it on.

"But you have to wear these." Mercedes ordered producing a pair of heels that looked more to Rachel like stilts than shoes. They were a deep purple with ankle straps to keep her from falling out of them. Knowing it would be akin to starting World War Three if she were to refuse she pulled the shoes on and twirled quickly for the two fashion critics who made Carson Kressley, Joan Rivers and Cojo look like adorable puppies.

"Our little diva is all grown up." Kurt shouted theatrically smacking an air kiss on each side of her face. "I need a picture!"

"Already got you covered." Mercedes called out waving her digital camera around. "I have a feeling that tonight is going to need documentation."

She posed for at least a dozen photos before Finn knocked on the door to let them know Carole and Burt had gone and the coast was clear for them to head out, they were already late and Santana had been blowing up his phone demanding to know what the hold up was.

"You can translate drooling boy right?" Mercedes whispered to Kurt before she opened the door, she knew Finn was going to flip over how gorgeous Rachel looked, her best friend just gave her a look and pulled the door open himself.

"Wow you look amazing."

Mercedes pouted, it was more fun when boys couldn't even articulate a sentence but the slack-jawed look on his face was fun too, especially now that she had snapped a picture of it to be savoured for all eternity.

"Let's get a move on, Tina just text me to say Lauren had to wrestle Santana's keys away from her to make sure she didn't drive over here. I think she's growing rather found of our littlest diva." Mercedes pinched Rachel cheek before swatting her on the butt. "Now get a move on."

Rachel jumped away practically falling onto Finn who reacted instantly by pulling her into him. Total kodak moment, Mercedes was already snapping away.

"Mercedes is driving and I call shot gun." Kurt yelled over his shoulder. "Blaine is probably already there and I don't want to leave him alone with some of those heathens Puck calls friends for long."

Finn backed away from Rachel quickly offering instead his arm to help her down the stairs, somehow she managed to walk steadily on her heels like she'd been practising since she was born.

"So chivalrous." She grinned as he opened the door admirably not staring at her legs while she situated herself. "You promise we'll leave and come back here if I want to?"

"Honey we already set up our musical movie marathon in my room." Kurt replied rolling his eyes. "Who knows you might have fun."

Rachel sighed inwardly, somehow she doubted almost bleeding to death had miraculously made all the people that hated and tormented her suddenly turn over a new leaf, Santana could be scary but not even she could stop a tidal wave of negativity coming at her from essentially the entire varsity athlete population.

"Artie brought over his DJ stuff and Puck said we could karaoke if you wanted to." Finn told her. "Whatever song you want."

"At least they can't throw slushees on me." She muttered to herself.

The drive to Puck's house was in her opinion entirely too short, of course in Lima everywhere was practically only five minutes from everywhere else.

"RACHIE'S HERE!" Brittany screamed already drunk and showing inhuman strength by picking Rachel up and hugging her. "SANNIE SHE'S HERE!"

"Bout time Berry." Santana looked her up and down and whistled. "Looking fine, nice work you two."

Kurt dipped his hat and pushed past making a bee line for Blaine who was chatting with Sam on the couch.

"Do you want a drink Rachel?" Finn offered.

She only nodded not missing the non-verbal exchange he made with Santana about not leaving her alone.

"I'm sure you have other things you want to do besides baby-sit me all night."

"Berry I've made it my mission to look out for you, you've kind of grown on me, you're still annoying as hell but I'm starting to like that about you. Santana does not baby-sit anyone, face it you've made it on the list of people I look out for and believe me it's not a big list. Now you just relax and hung out with Auntie Tana because you are going to have fun even if I have to sing some stupid broadway number on the karaoke machine to make sure of it." Santana grabbed her face and made her nod. "So what's the deal with you and Frankenteen? You taken him back yet?"

Rachel was still processing when Santana made the rapid fire topic change leaving her unable to stop the word vomit.

"Not yet."

"Yet implies that it will happen. If you let his pathetic self hitch his wagon back on yours before Nationals I win the pot." Santana gloated. "He's like a big fluffy puppy he hasn't stopped looking over her since he went to get your drink. And here comes boy wonder now."

"Thank you Finn." Rachel said quietly accepting the bottle of water he offered, she noticed he was holding a can of coke and not a red cup of punch or a beer like the majority of the party.

"Gee thanks Dudson I'll just take a nice sip out of the invisible cup you brought me." Santana snapped sarcastically. "I guess I'll get my own then."

Winking at Rachel she sauntered over to Brittany and started dancing with her and Mercedes expertly showing off the faux-lesbian dance their generation had perfected, only in Santana's case it wasn't so faux not that the other two girls minded, they seemed to enjoy the shock and awe on the faces of the guys staring at them. Rachel sipped at her water and smiled gamely at the various people who kept looking over at her. Maybe they were right and this wouldn't so bad.

_GLEE! _

No one had ever imagined that they would live to see the day that Puck and Sam would be swaying, leaning on each other and tearfully entertaining everyone with their drunken, actually what goes beyond drunk? Let's go with drunken, rendition of _Can You Feel The Love Tonight?_ The Lion King version. Tina and Mercedes in a far cry form their usual hysterical laughter were sombrely waving their phones in the air tear marks evident on their faces. Perhaps what was most surprising was that rather than boo them or throw their drinks the football team actually seemed oddly moved by the performance, but that was probably just the alcohol.

"Well I'm pretty sure we are the only sober people left at this party." Kurt declared slinging his arms around Rachel and Blaine.

"Actually I haven't seen Finn drink tonight either." Blaine commented his eyes still fixated on Lauren and Santana who were enthusiastically chest bumping after owning several people at beer pong, their winners dance was surprisingly coordinated.

"Noah is going to kill you for recording this." Rachel admonished although she didn't know why, if the situation were reversed Noah wouldn't even pause to take a breath before hitting the record button.

"Recording? Hell this is being uploaded straight to YouTube, I got ten bucks that says this goes viral faster that Coach Sylvester's Physical video!"

"Thank you! Thank you! I love you man!" Sam slurred hugging Puck loosely. "That was for Fincccchhhheeeellllll!"

Well it wouldn't be a proper drunken performance if someone didn't trip over an amp. Blaine quickly helped right the blonde while basically yanking Puck from the stage before he could perform another number.

"Do you want to sing?" Kurt asked scrolling through Artie's iPod which had long ago taken over as DJ once Artie himself was too distracted by his girlfriend to continue.

Rachel shook her head, she hadn't sung since the accident. It wasn't like she hadn't tried because she had, but every time she opened her mouth no sound came out. Instead of that warm sensation that spread through her body each time she sang, she felt nothing. Paralysing fear overtook her and choked her throat preventing a single note from being sung.

"I know you hit your head pretty hard but I didn't realise quite how hard." Kurt gasped, Rachel _always_ wanted to sing. He was positive she even sang in her sleep, her first words were Do-Re-Mi and she sang them! "I haven't heard you sing since Prom, I don't think I've even heard you hum."

"That's because I haven't." She replied. "I try but my throat closes up, my therapist said it's probably post traumatic stress."

"We will need to fix that." Kurt told her squeezing her hand. "Broadway needs your voice, it would be just cruel to deprive future generations of broadway babies of hearing you on stage."

"I want to sing but I can't. I've tried believe me I've tried. My therapist said not to force it, my voice will return when it's ready."

"How is this not killing you?" Blaine asked well aware of Rachel's vigorous singing schedule.

"I still write." She answered simply. "I've being writing in my diary, I've been writing songs, just writing. Until I can express myself vocally I'll continue to express myself through words. One of the songs I've been working on may be good enough for Nationals."

"Honey everyone knows the best songs are written at your lowest point and considering what has happened recently I'm positive this song has Grammy written all over it." Kurt assured her. "Can I see it?"

"Not until it's finished and you can hear me sing it myself." Rachel promised. "Why don't you and Blaine sing next?"

"Unfortunately Blaine and I are on drunk friend duty, we have to keep an eye on everyone to make sure nothing happens." Kurt sighed. "And I sincerely doubt the Neanderthals over there would appreciate a duet between two guys."

"They need to get over their homophobia." Rachel said darkly.

"I agree."

Mercedes and Tina had managed to pull themselves together after Puck and Sam's performance, Mike was consoling his girlfriend while Mercedes and Sam were staring at each other drunkenly, if she were to guess what was happening she would definitely bet on playing peek a boo given their odd hand gestures.

"You having fun Berry?" Santana asked plopping down on the couch next to her. "You boys might want to check on Puckerman, it sounded like he was throwing up a buick in the bushes."

Kurt paled and grabbed Blaine's hand leading him towards the backyard, if Puck got vomit on his shoes he'd be replacing them plus buying the matching belt.

"Why must you call me by my last name?" Rachel replied avoiding the question, she wasn't not, not having fun.

"Because that's the way I roll." Santana winked. "So Berry are you going to let Finnocence get his grubby paws all over you because I'm pretty sure if you don't throw the dog a bone he's going to start humping your leg soon."

"That was a fairly well put together metaphor considering the amount of alcohol you've consumed." Rachel marvelled. "And not that it is any business of yours but I am in no hurry to enter into another relationship with Finn. Until I am one hundred percent certain that his feelings for me are genuine and not borne from guilt we shall remain friends."

"No offence but that is the dumbest thing I ever heard. Maybe you and Frankenteen are perfect for each other." She snorted taking a large gulp from her cup. "You do realise he was never into me when we fucked right? He only did it because he thought you were having sex with Jesse and he was jealous."

"Perhaps the second time but he also dumped me to date you and Brittany, lied to me about your liaison and dated Quinn after everything she put him through. I just don't see how my indiscretion was worse than hers."

"Well du'h, I thought you were meant to be smart." Santana rolled her eyes. "He didn't love Quinn so what she did didn't hurt as much. God I am way too buzzed to be talking about this shit. Just talk to Finn, tell him to put on his big boy pants, grow a pair and tell you exactly why he did what he did."

Santana sauntered off only stumbling once leaving Rachel alone with her thoughts, all she had done was basically reiterate what she had already been told by so many but did that make it true?

_GLEE!_

He had never known being the sober one at a party could actually be fun, if he was so inclined he would have a mountain of blackmail on his friends based on their antics tonight. Kurt and Blaine had been on puke patrol while he had appointed himself in charge of Rachel watch, the key was to keep just out of sight enough for her not to realise he was being a creepy stalker like guy but close enough to make sure she was okay. So far he had done pretty well, not that it was hard she'd taken up residence on one of the couches and barely moved all night content to chat with whoever stopped by. Of course he'd immediately been on alert when Santana wandered over, he'd even eavesdropped on their conversation, was it really his fault that she had to yell to be heard over the music and he could hear her from where he was? No he didn't think so either.

He kind of knew how she felt from reading her diary, he felt pretty crappy after reading it and for reading it but it hurt him to know that she still felt that way. He thought he'd been making progress but the scars from before must have run deep. One of the things that she wrote had stayed with him, well all of it had but this one resonated. Every insult, every time he stayed silent, every kiss, every song that he shared with Quinn, it was like Jesse cracking that egg on her head only this time it was her heart that was being cracked and she could never piece it back together again not matter how hard she tried. He wanted to be the one to help heal her heart, he just had to work out how to stop breaking it first.

_GLEE! _

The party had turned into a sleepover since Rachel, Kurt, Blaine and Finn had been unable to rouse their increasingly drunken and sleepy friends into Finn's truck so he could drive them home. Puck was passed out on the lounge room floor hugging one of the couch legs, Lauren was beside him hugging a cushion. Sam and Mercedes were snuggled closely almost in a four-way spoon with Mike and Tina. Santana was on the couch snoring loudly, Brittany was curled up on Artie's lap both of them in his chair.

"I'm not cleaning this up." Kurt declared looking at what had to be the world's largest collection of bottle caps, can tabs and chip crumbs.

"Rachel you're not meant to be over exerting yourself!" Blaine scolded grabbing the trash bag from her hands and placing it on the floor. "Puck can clean up in the morning, you should get some sleep."

"I may be tired but I am not sleeping in Noah's bed, I sincerely doubt he washes them regularly." Rachel wrinkled her nose. "And I wouldn't feel right sleeping in his mother's room or his little sisters."

"I can take you home." Finn offered. "We can tell your dads that you didn't feel comfortable sleeping at our house."

"We do that and she'll never be allowed out of the house again." Kurt retorted.

"We could go home but someone should probably stay here and keep an eye on the nine drunken dwarves." Finn looked at his brother and Blaine using every bit of him to try to convey that he wanted them to offer to stay here. He didn't exactly believe in the force but he tried it.

"Finn you should take Rachel back to our house, if Dad or Carole asks where we are just say we fell asleep and there weren't any beds left." Kurt ordered. "Try to be quiet its better if you don't wake them, try to come back early I'm not babysitting nine babies with hangovers without reinforcements."

"I resent that!" Santana yelled before promptly falling back asleep. Rachel jumped slightly landing against Finn, she always had scared easily.

"I don't want to be a bother." Rachel protested. "I can just make a bed up for myself on the floor."

"Really? And sleep through the hacksaw symphony?" Kurt snorted motioning to the lounge where roughly nine snores of varying sound and volume could be heard.

"It wont be the most pleasant nights sleep but I'll make do." Rachel said confidently.

"Sorry sweetie but either you're getting in Finn's truck on your own or we'll put you in there by force." Blaine told her softly patting her hand. "You still need your rest."

"I'm not an invalid." She scowled. "The doctors are very proud of my recovery, I'm practically in perfect health."

"Finn, pick her up." Kurt instructed. "I'll get the doors."

"I'll scream!" She threatened halting their movements.

"Please Rachel just go with Finn and get some sleep. For my own sanity." Kurt pleaded.

"Fine but we'll be back by 8am to start breakfast." She bargained.

"You should probably go since it's already 2am." Blaine pointed out.

Finn opened the door and helped her into the truck, she always seemed comically small compared to his beast of a car.

"I heard what you said." He blurted out, he had been looking for a smoother opening but apparently his mouth had other ideas. "To Santana, I heard what you said. I wasn't eavesdropping, I swear."

"Finn it's fine." Rachel said softly leaning down to take off her shoes, torture devices really. "It's nothing I haven't said to you in as many words anyway."

"I didn't realise you felt that way about Quinn. That you thought that I-"

"We don't have to talk about this."

"Yes we do! Santana was right, you know she never apologised? Not once. And I didn't ask her to because it would have been empty because I haven't forgiven her. I can't when she doesn't think she needs to be forgiven. After what happened at Sectionals I felt so crap I just wanted it to stop. She kissed me after the football game and I thought that maybe the reason why everything was so screwed up with you was because I wasn't finished with her." Finn groaned. "But I was wrong, I was so wrong. But then it was like I couldn't stop, she was planning all of these things and you said you were focussing on yourself and then Jesse came back-"

"Do you ever feel like we keep making the same mistakes? Because I swear the last few months have felt oddly like last year." Rachel said nonchalantly staring out the window.

"I wish I could just fix everything. I wish I hadn't lied to you." He said biting his lip. "I wish I'd been smart enough to talk to you then instead of acting like an idiot and getting mad at you."

"It's not your fault, you know that we've talked about that and you've read my diary so you know all about that too." Rachel reminded him.

"I just didn't realise you still felt that way, I thought you understood that it's you, it's always been you."

"For how long?" She asked wearily. "Because it never lasts, there's always something more important. Popularity, football, Quinn! We tried Finn, we really did but we don't work."

"We screwed up but we know what we did wrong. I still love you and I know if try this one more time we can make it work. Third time's a charm right?"

"I'm sorry Finn, I just don't think I could handle watching you walk away from me again." Rachel cried holding her head in her hands. Through her tears she realised they had made it back to the Hudmel house.

"I'll never walk away from you." He promised. "Even after Quinn and Puck and Jesse and Slushees, I still love you, I've seen _Notting Hill_ I'm pretty sure I could do the whole speech right now."

"Please don't." She said softly.

"What do I have to say? What can I do?" He asked desperately. "I love you, I love you so much. You don't know what you've got until it's gone. I thought I lost you and I know that I can't. I can't lose you, ever."

"Time." Rachel whispered. "I need time."

She practically bolted from the car, her shoes carelessly left behind. He picked them up and followed after her. He was outside of Kurt's room and had managed to be stealth meaning he hadn't woken up his mum and Burt.

"You forgot your shoes." He said poking his head in through the doorway. Rachel accepted them from him wordlessly placing them carefully next to the rejected shoes from earlier. "I'll wait, you're worth waiting for."

"It could be forever." She mumbled pulling the pins from her hair wincing as they caught the stitches.

"I told you we weren't over and I meant it." Finn repeated coming up behind her. "Warm."

"Pardon?"

"You asked me once what I saw when you kissed me. I saw everything but more than that I felt warm. I felt loved and happy." He paused at the door. "I just thought you should know that."

She blinked trying to hold tears back, it was late, or early depending on how you look at it, she was tired and more than that she was drained, emotionally and later it would be those exact things that she blamed for what she did next. Without thought she kissed him, glided her lips over his and pressed their bodies together trying to feel as much of him as she could. He kissed her back of course, one hand splayed across her back the other firmly knotted in her hair.

"Ow." Rachel pulled away reaching back to touch her stitches that Finn had bumped. His lips were puffy from her kisses and he had a dopey grin on his face. She felt it, damn him but she felt it, that warm tingling sensation that hums across your body and makes you just want to never stop. It would always be there. Like some kind of invisible tether forever tying them together.

_GLEE!_

Kurt had to make do with Mama Puckerman's various beauty products for his nightly moisturising ritual, he and Blaine had traded off sleeping to make sure someone was awake and keeping an eye on the drunkards at all times. Which of course meant they had barely slept and were quite possibly crankier than their charges would be when they woke up.

"So what do you think happened when they got back to your place?" Blaine yawned staring impatiently at the kettle, waiting for it to boil so he could have his much needed caffeine hit.

"I can see either of the following." Kurt said perking up slightly. "They either went at it like horn dogs or Finn said something completely stupid that he didn't mean thus spending the rest of the night kicking himself while Rachel alternatively slept and sobbed in my room."

"Thus?" Blaine checked.

"Thus." Kurt confirmed. "And knowing the two of them as well as I do-"

"It's a 99.99% chance that it's the latter." Blaine finished for him. "Who knows? Maybe the numerous and not so little chats she's been getting from everyone have weakened her resolve and they made up."

"That's a 0.01% possibility." Kurt said drily. "And even if they did kiss, it's Finchel it will be wrought with drama that will carry on for the next week."

"Do you ever think that your glee club has an unusual amount of angst and drama?"

"No more than the teens you see on TV." Kurt replied.

"My point exactly. You guys have more things happen in a week than the Warblers have all year."

"Aw are you jealous of our increasingly soap opera-esque lives?" Kurt teased. "Because there's definitely room for some Blaine drama in New Directions."

"I'll keep that in mind." Blaine smiled slurping greedily at his coffee. "So what do we feed a bunch of hungover teenagers when we can't use bacon or eggs?"

"Pancakes, waffles and hash browns?" Rachel suggested coming into the kitchen carrying two grocery bags. "Finn's checking on everyone else while I start cooking."

"Are you making your banana, strawberry and blueberry pancakes?" Kurt asked practically drooling.

"If someone volunteers to chop the fruit than I suppose I could be persuaded." She giggled.

Blaine and Kurt traded a look, she was smiling, cooking and honest to god giggling.

"Did you and Finn have sex?" Kurt asked bluntly.

"No!" Rachel blushed scarlet beating the pancake batter with renewed vigour. "Can you chop those strawberries please?"

"Well you did something." Blaine mumbled under his breath, peeling the potatoes.

"Those pancakes smell amazing." Finn complimented loudly taking a seat at the breakfast bar, Puck and Lauren straggling in behind him. "Are you making banana bread too?"

"I've got my hands full with pancakes right now." Rachel replied. "But I'll see what I can do."

"You better have maple syrup here Puckerman or I will drop you." Lauren threatened. "Aspirin?"

"I got something better." Puck yawned. "Tomato juice, three aspirin, a shot of gatorade and a multi-vitamin."

"You just keep that stuff lying around?" Kurt asked incredulously.

"Tomato juice and gatorade in the fridge, aspirin and multi-vitamins in the cupboard above the stove."

Finn pulled out the Puckerman hangover cure and set them on the table, he figured almost the entire club will be needing that cure.

"So was I still asleep or did I hear you guys talking about Hudson and Berry doing the nasty?" Lauren asked gulping down the tomato juice and tablets with ease.

"Nah, there's no way he popped her cherry. Berry wouldn't be able to shut up about it." Puck dismissed.

"Noah!" Rachel admonished. "I would do no such thing, it would be a private thing between Finn and I."

"Aha! So you admit to there being a Finn and you!" Blaine yelled effectively waking up the rest of the house. "Something did happen last night!"

"If anything did or did not happen between Rachel and I it would be our business, not yours." Finn said. "Why is everyone so interested anyway?"

"Please you guys are our Lucas and Peyton, our Ross and Rachel, our Seth and Summer, our Dan and Serena-"

"I think they got it." Santana grumbled. "Can you try and be a little quieter? My head wont stop spinning and I can't get my phone to work."

"Yeah I think when you decided to see if it could swim in tequila it kind of went kaput." Artie said wheeling into the kitchen with Brittany still curled on his lap, hands over her ears.

"First load of pancakes." Rachel announced handing over the large pile of blueberry pancakes.

"Thanks Rachie." Brittany said sleepily. "Do you have the strawberry ones too?"

"Coming up next, any other orders?"

"Coffee. Black." Tina answered. "Do you have an IV drip you can attach to me filled with coffee?"

"With lots of sugar for mine." Mike added.

"Oh I'm sorry are those arms painted on?" Kurt said sarcastically. "Get it yourself!"

"Boy Diva didn't get his required eight hours?" Mercedes guessed. "I'll get the coffee, unlike you fools I downed a bottle of water before I passed out, I barely have a headache."

"Smartass." Puck muttered. "What about your lover boy?"

"Who?"

"Oh I must have seen your identical twin eating Sam's face off." Puck replied with a smirk.

"Busted." Artie said in a sing-song.

Taking advantage of everyone's attention being diverted from him and Rachel, Finn took the opportunity to stare at her, her lips while not puffy from his kisses like last night still looked amazing to him.

_LAST NIGHT_

Rachel wrapped her arms around Finn's neck letting her heart and not her head rule her actions. Of course being Rachel Berry her head ruled out fairly quickly.

"We can't do this." She said pushing a hand to his chest and pushing him away softly.

"Why not?"

"Because I really want to." She answered. "But we can't just jump into a relationship again, lips first. It hasn't worked for us before and I can't handle that kind of heartache again."

"So what are you saying?" Finn asked cupping her cheek. "You want to be with me but you wont do it?"

"I'm saying that if we were to even consider becoming a couple again we would need to follow rules, guidelines. Go slow, talk about everything and become comfortable with each other again, make sure that this is really what we want." She explained. "Not just what our adolescent hormones are telling us we want."

"Really, really want." Finn muttered, inwardly he willed Finn Jr. to calm down. "You draw up whatever guidelines you want and I'll follow it, I know what I want Rach. You."

"That's very sweet." Rachel smiled slightly. "This is going to be a very slow process, by comparison glacial will seem like the road runner."

"Whatever it takes." Finn bit his lip. "But can that slow process start tomorrow?"

Rachel pressed a finger against his lips stalling his attempt at kissing her.

"No."

"Had to ask." He sighed. "Good night Rach."

"Good night Finn."

_GLEE!_

She hadn't been drunk on the weekend and she wasn't drunk now so there was no logical explanation for the double vision she was currently seeing.

"Did the bully whips double over night?" She asked Kurt who was trying to weave through the multiple red berets towards their lockers.

"Coach Sylvester threatned to have all of the school jocks kicked off their teams if they didn't sign up. Even the mullet haired hockey losers have to don the raspberry beret." Kurt giggled. "She made them cut off their mullets first, Santana said one of them even cried."

"I heard she's pushing Figgins to instate a zero bully tolerance policy." Mercedes gossiped. "She's really pissed about Quinn, I guess to her there's a fine line between bullying and trying to kill someone."

"Accidentally." Rachel reminded her.

"Right." Mercedes made air quotes. "Accidentally. Like when I accidentally flushed my brother's furby down the toilet"

"Check out Simba and Nala's lockers." Kurt nudged Mercedes. "Still playing coy on your little mouth to mouth with the fine Mr Evans?"

Someone had kitted out the front of Puck and Sam's lockers with dozens of Lion King stickers, they were going to be pissed.

"We made out when we were drunk!"

"And then nuzzled on the couch the morning after." Kurt said. "Samcedes is coming."

"Why are we talking about Samcedes when we all know something went down in Finchel-land." Santana interrupted. "I know you didn't open your legs for him but my sexdar says you guys at least rounded first base on Saturday night."

"She's like a sexual sleuth." Kurt said amazed. "Of course neither Rachel nor Finn is confirming this."

"Let them stay silent, my sexdar is never wrong." Santana smirked. "Mark my words, Finchel will be back with a vengeance by the end of the month."

"That's in three days." Mercedes pointed out.

"I know." Santana replied rolling her eyes. "Just like I know Berry has no idea what we've been talking about since her and Finnocence have been locked in eye sex for the last four minutes."

"Bully Whips Alpha report to the gymnasium for morning briefing. Bully Whips Alpha." Sue's loud voice boomed through the P.A.

"Let me know how the boys like my artwork." Santana yelled over her shoulder making her way to the gym.

"Was Santana just here?" Rachel asked absently breaking out of her heated gaze with Finn now that he was standing less than a foot from her thinking her was discreet with his hand rubbing her back.

"Bully Whips meeting." Mercedes replied. "We're waiting for Puck and Sam to come by and admire their new locker designs."

"As fascinating as listening to Puck let out a string of four letter words is I must depart." Rachel rolled her eyes. "Spanish."

"I'll walk you." Finn volunteered grabbing her books and adding them to his pile.

"Obvious."

"So obvious." Kurt agreed.

"WHAT THE FUCK?"

Mercedes just giggled, Puck was trying to peel off the stickers and having no luck, she had no idea he knew how to say 'fuck' in so many languages.

"Hey Mercedes." Sam greeted leaning over and kissing her on the cheek. "Can I walk you to class?"

"Not a word." She growled at Kurt. "Let's go Sam."

Kurt zipped his lip, but inwardly he echoed his earlier sentiment, _so obvious. _

_GLEE!_

The new sea of Bully Whips actually had their intended effect. No one had been slusheed since the usual slushee throwers were now in charge of protecting their victims. Santana and Sue had put the fear of Cheerios into just about ever student athlete in the school threatening to ruin any chance at scholarships, staying in sports and even getting laid, well that last one had been Santana's threat and she was fairly certain it had been the most effective. Figgins had listened to Sue's proposal which Mr Schue had shown up to support; seeing the two enemies on the same side had shocked him into calling the school board to have it instated immediately. Of course there were still peoples who were against the Bully Whips, in particular a girl gang that had recently initiated a new member, Quinn Fabray.

"Can you believe she died her hair pink and got a tramp stamp?" Tina whispered across the lunch table.

"Please I have photos of her at the salon, girl has at least five Bully Whips on her at all times." Santana replied handing over her phone. "It wont last, she's just trying to make people feel sorry for her."

"Or fear her." Artie suggested. "Her new friends are quite intimidating."

"If by intimidating you mean wannabe hoochie mamas." Lauren snickered. "I could take them all out and still have time to make to the microwave before my pizza rolls were done."

"I give her a week before she has some new tactic to get people to talk about her."

"Can we please stop talking about Quinn Fabray?" Kurt snapped. "I think she's ruined enough lives without us aiding her inflated sense of self worth."

"So what's going on with Finn and Rachel?" Mike asked changing the subject. "I saw them in the library, apparently Rachel is tutoring Finn in math."

"She's at the house every night." Kurt revealed. "She's also helping him with his dancing."

"I saw them outside her house kissing last night." Brittany said. "It lasted forty five seconds, Lord Tubbington counted. Ever since he stopped smoking I've been taking him for walks again, he's helping me find the guy that's stealing the rubbish from our trash cans."

"Three days." Santana said triumphantly. "My sexdar wins again."

"What does it say about Sam and Mercedes?" Tina asked raising an eyebrow.

"That they've been round to second base and back but are currently in a holding pattern." She answered. "And that they're making out on the front lawn, that tree isn't as good at hiding them as they think."

Kurt's phone was already out and taking photos.

"Hey guys." Rachel greeted setting her tray down on the table. "What are we talking about?"

"Sam and Mercedes are getting their mack on outside and you and Finn are secretly back together." Brittany answered.

"We're not back together." Finn said not without a pout and touch of sulkiness. "We're taking it slow and rebuilding our friendship."

"Well can I be Rachel's friend too if it means I can make out with her out the front of her house?" Puck joked. "Ow damn it woman it was a joke!"

"I don't see how any of that is your business Noah." Rachel said slowly. "Finn and I are simply seeing what happens, if we do happen to get back together rest assured you will be the first to know since you seem to care so much."

"Please as if you'll have time to tell anyone before Mercedes tweets it."

"She does have more followers than Charlie Sheen." Lauren agreed. "You guys take it slow all you want but get your act together before Nationals. I'm not losing out on a big ass trophy just because you two are too chicken shit to get it together."

"I assure you Lauren there will be no problems at Nationals." Rachel promised. "As a matter of fact Finn and I have been collaborating on a duet that I believe will win us that trophy and the respect and admiration of our peers."

"It's a song, not the Geneva convention."

"Writing this song is helping us come to terms with what went wrong with our relationship." Rachel explained. "All of our heartache and sorrow is going into it."

"You guys are going to napalm the audience with emotion." Artie surmised.

"Don't I always?" Rachel smiled dazzlingly.

"I knew my diva was still in there somewhere!" Kurt exclaimed slapping a kiss to her cheek. "Does this mean you've been singing again?"

Rachel shook her head.

"I'm getting closer. Sean has been helping me by teaching me how to cope with trauma. Between him and my therapist I'm positive that I'll be belting out a high F soon."

"I believe her." Mike announced. "Rachel Berry and a stage, that's your cure right there."

"Don't forget the spotlight." Tina added. "An empty stage, a single spotlight."

"And one helluva song." Lauren finished. "We've got this."

"Yeah we do." Finn agreed softly holding Rachel's hand. He knew how upset her inability to sing was making her. How the loss of her voice plagued her, made her doubt everything. He was going to get it back for her, her voice. He just had to work out how.

_GLEE! _

Okay so maybe they had lied. And maybe it was the kind of lie that could have huge repercussions but it was a necessity. Rachel had been working with a renewed vigour, she actually made past Rachel look lazy in comparison. When she wasn't talking with her therapist she was Finn and Sean running through vocal exercises; so far she had managed to get through some scales without her voice cracking. So what if her voice wasn't back completely, if everyone knew that they would just freak out, unnecessarily because her voice would not let them down in New York, of that she was positive.

"Did anyone else have a nightmare involving Quinn blowing up our plane?" Mercedes asked through her yawn, she had no less than three suitcases which wasn't that much, Kurt had brought six.

"Now I will." Sam said grouchily. Apparently Finn wasn't the only ex she felt belonged to her, Quinn had made it known to Mercedes that she thought her ex was obviously downgrading. It had taken the combined strength of Puck, Mike, Sam and Finn to keep her from 'putting the bitch down like the rabid dog she was' in Mercedes' words.

"I still can't believe she bit you." Puck laughed throwing his arm around Lauren and whispering something in her ear.

"It was an accident." Mercedes said defensively. "But if you keep bringing it up I can guarantee what happens to you wont be!"

"Your girlfriend is scary." Puck said pointing at Sam.

"My girlfriend?" Sam raised his eyebrows. "Your girlfriend could kill me before I moved."

"And that's so freaking sexy." Puck growled.

"Raise your hand if you want Puckerman to stop talking now." Santana proposed brightly. "And that's a clean sweep, Lauren be a dear and keep your boyfriend from infecting our ears for the rest of this trip."

"Bite me Lopez." Puck retorted before Lauren grabbed his face to keep him from continuing talking.

"Well now that Zizes is eating off his face we can talk about important stuff." Santana declared. "Did you two finish your song yet?"

"Don't even try to get anything out of them." Kurt sighed. "I live with Finn and I can't get so much as a note from him. They wont even practice if they think I can hear them."

"Wait so no one has heard them?" Mercedes checked. "Has anyone heard Rachel sing?"

"Nope." Was the definitive answer.

"So how do we know she's got her voice back?"

"I assure you my voice is as magnificent as ever." Rachel interrupted. "And as for Kurt being unable to hear our duet, we would rather you be just as affected as the audience the first time they hear it but please be assured that we will blow you away."

"See that's the Berry that makes my skin crawl!" Santana exclaimed. "I say with love and affection."

"That was totally coming across." Artie said seriously. "I got warm and fuzzies from that didn't you?"

"Shut up four eyes!"

"This isn't going to be a long flight at all." Mike groaned resting his head against Tina. Rachel smiled broadly waiting until everyone's gaze had left her before she let it fall, if she opened her mouth on that stage and all that came out was a squeak it would take more than the combined efforts of Puck, Mike, Sam, Finn and Lauren to keep Santana from killing her.

_GLEE!_

The group had been confined to their hotel room until they finished writing their group song. Rachel had offered up some of her earlier efforts and Brittany had been rallying the others to let them sing _My Headband_.

"Come on guys we have to be able to come up with something." Artie banged his head against his hands. "We wrote _Loser Like Me_, how can we have a complete mental block right now?"

"It took us a week to write that song." Mike pointed out. "So far all we have is a basic melody and nothing that rhymes with _I have no words to sing_."

"This other one of Rachel's could work." Kurt said. "_I don't feel myself today, just a figure in a big monopoly game. Struggle is the price you pay, you get enough just to give it away." _

"Maybe we should try for something a littler lighter after the emotional drama-rama of the duet?" Tina suggested. "_We sing to be free, just happy I can be me_?"

"You switched tenses." Kurt pointed out. "We have to be able to come up with something. Our lives could be a teen drama on the CW and yet we can't find anything from our collective experiences to write a song about?"

"Nope." Puck answered throwing the ball.

"We are definitely going to light up that stage when we open our mouths and in unison nothing comes out." Tina sulked.

"Light up the world." Santana blurted out. "Let's light up the world tonight."

"That doesn't completely suck." Lauren said slowly. "You gotta give up the fight and ride."

"You getting this?" Puck asked Artie who shot him a thumbs up.

"I think they've got this." Finn whispered to Rachel. "Want to go practice the duet?"

Rachel nodded and followed him out the door, their friends so into their song didn't even notice their absence. Too bad that couldn't be said for their fellow competitors who were also rooming in this hotel.

"Hey didn't I throw eggs at you last year before we wiped the floor with you at Regionals?" a nameless Vocal Adrenaline flunkie taunted as they walked past in matching work out clothes.

"You didn't wipe the floor with them." A voice boomed out. "I did, you just rode on my finely sewn coattails."

"Jesse?" Rachel said the name falling from her lips with mild disgust. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm consulting for Vocal Adrenaline. I'm just dying to see what your little band of misfits tries to call a show choir performance this year." Jesse smirked. "Finn, I'd say it was nice to see you again but it would be unbecoming of me to lie."

"Get lost St. Jackass. Rach and I were about to practice the duet that's going to seal us the trophy."

"Whatever Finn. Ever notice that when you two sing together your team loses? Hmm, I would think about that before going out on that stage and making a bigger mockery out of yourselves than you already are." Jesse snapped. "Now if you'll excuse me my partner and I really must get back to rehearsal, I don't want to waste my time further on lost causes."

"Partner? I don't see anyone with you." Finn pointed out trying to ignore Jesse's digs at him and Rachel.

"Oh she's meeting us in our rehearsal space, I'm surprised she didn't tell you that she had offered her expertise. I gladly accepted, I recognised a kindred unappreciated spirit in her."

"Jesse!" There you are, you need to talk to Brandon he's still three seconds too early into the chorus."

"Quinn?"

Oh, how had they not seen that coming.

_GLEE!_

How did girls not burn themselves with those hot iron things they had clamped to their heads? Probably not the thing he should be thinking of right before their performance but at the moment it was. He and Rachel had decided not to spill the beans about Quinn turning traitor, they kind of needed Santana for their group song and not behind bars in the local police station for killing Quinn with her shoe.

"I haven't seen her." Rachel murmured taking a seat next to Finn and straightening his tie. "I still don't want to tell them but what if she shows up right before we go on to try to throw us off balance?"

"I'm worried about that too." He agreed. "She hasn't heard our songs so she can't use that to her advantage."

"I'm still not convinced they didn't follow us." Rachel said crossing her arms.

"We took two trains and cab to get a block from the hotel." Finn pointed out. "I'm positive they didn't hear us."

"I just hate the thought that after everything we lose because of one of our own team mates."

"Former team mates." Finn corrected.

"Okay what they hell are you two whispering about because it sure as hell aint sweet nothings!" Mercedes demanded. "Y'all been secretive ever since you got back last night and not in a good way."

Finn bit his lip, squeezing Rachel's hand, he wanted to tell them looking at her she nodded slightly which he took as his cue to explain.

"Quinn's here." He blurted out wincing at his lack of tact. "We saw her last night."

"What the hell?"

"I'm going to murder the bully whips I had assigned to her!"

"Why?"

It was Tina's question that was answered.

"She's consulting with Jesse for Vocal Adrenaline." Rachel explained. "He was quite smug about it too like having Quinn on his side was going to ruin us."

"I doubt it." Sam said. "She doesn't even know our songs, hell we didn't know one of our songs twenty-four hours ago!"

"Still she knows us." Rachel reminded him. "She knows our moves, our talents and our weaknesses, we'd be fools to think that Vocal Adrenaline wont try to exploit that."

"It's not like we can do anything about it now." Puck pointed out.

"Who cares." Mike all but yelled. "Sorry." He apologised quickly. "I mean I don't care that she knows that Mercedes sings the long notes or that Finn and Rachel do the emotional songs or that Britt and I are the best dancers. We've worked too long to let that stop us."

"Here's a sentence I never thought I'd say." Lauren muttered. "Mike's right. I could go and snap blondie like a twig and that would feel damn good or we can own the stage and kick ass, who cares that she's shacked up with Vocal Adrenaline?"

"Yeah!" Artie whooped. "You think they know what it's like to be thrown in a dumpster? Or a porta-potty? Or had a slushee thrown at them? No, they know stage smiles and being soulless automatons."

"Are we bringing the funk?" Brittany asked excitedly. "We got the funk!"

"I say screw Vocal Adrenaline, screw Jesse St. Jackass and screw Quinn!" Santana shouted. "I came to New York to win and I wants my trophy and I wants to smash her little blonde head in with it."

"This song of yours." Kurt said slowly. "Is it good?"

"It's better." Rachel declared. "It's about heart, they don't have it and we all know that. They can throw whatever they want at us but they can't beat love."

"Good." He said calmly. "Then I need you two to go out there and _notebook_ that entire audience."

"Got it." Rachel kissed her best friend's cheek. "I promise you Kurt this will not be the last time you and I will grace the stage in New York, this is the start of our illustrious and sure to be award winning careers."

"Break a leg." Mercedes said to them both grasping their arms a little too tightly. "Show 'em what they're missing."

Rachel nodded once her eyes raking over her glee clubbers, so different to how she had seen them in the green room at sectionals. With one last look she followed Finn backstage getting ready to take her position for her entrance.

"Before we go on I want you to have this." Finn told her holding out a necklace. "They're my dad's dog tags, I wear them for good luck, I though tonight we could share." He held up the tarnished chain with one dog tag, reaching out he clumsily attached the simple chain he had put the other dog tag on.

Her eyes swam with tears, this was the most personal thing anyone had ever shared with her.

"I love you." She said softly kissing him briefly.

"I love you." He echoed tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "You belong here Rach, this stage it's your home remember that."

"My home is with you." She replied kissing his knuckles before quickly walking to where she would make her entrance. It was lucky he was meant to be smiling because he couldn't keep the grin off his face.

Stepping out onto the stage he ignored the blinding lights, the low mumbling of what had to be hundreds of people and focussed on the tiny brunette who would be making her way towards him in approximately thirty seconds.

"_I'm saying sorry advance cause this wont always go to plan._

_Though we don't mean to take our love for granted,_

_It's in our nature to forget what matters." _

Holding out his hand he waited patiently for Rachel to make her way to him.

"_How when the going is getting tough, _

_And we're all about giving up._

_Things that we've never thought we'd say, gonna say 'em._

_Things that we never though we'd play, gonna play 'em." _

Grasping his hand she moved to face him, their height difference not quite so comical with her heels.

"_It ain't perfect, but it's worth it,_

_And it's always getting better."_

Rachel smiled at him before taking a few steps until only their fingertips brushed.

"_It's gonna take some time to get it right."_

Moving to the opposite edges of the stage they both stared out into the light and belted together their voices melding together perfectly.

"_Cause I'm still learning the art of love,_

_I'm still trying to not mess up. _

_So whenever I stumble let me know."_

Shaking her head with a hand on her hip Rachel pouted.

"_You need to spell it out." _

Finn smirked and sang the same words back.

"_You need to spell it out." _

She stepped forward purposefully.

"_You need to spell it out." _

Rather smug he stepped forward until he was towering over her before dropping to his knee and grabbing her hands.

"_You need to spell it out for me." _

Rolling her eyes she took a seat on his knee and slung her arm around his neck their foreheads pressed together as they sang.

"_Cause I'm still trying to learn the art of love." _

Rachel stood up quickly and moved away from him doing some fancy spins that he couldn't name for the life of him. 

"_If I forget to get the door, _

_remind you that you're beautiful. _

_I know my detail requires more attention,_

_If I ever hurt you that's not my intention." _

Rachel made a show of sighing before making her way back to him slowly.

"_Cause we're gonna make our mistakes,_

_find out how much your heart can take._

_But I know that you got my back,_

_And baby I got yours." _

Dancing the waltz that had taken him longer than he was comfortable with to learn he moved her around the stage.

"_Cause I'm still learning the art of love,_

_I'm still trying to not mess up. _

_So whenever I stumble let me know."_

She smiled through her line this time.

"_You need to spell it out." _

He played it sheepish.

"_You need to spell it out." _

She exaggerated her movements as though she really was spelling it out.

"_You need to spell it out." _

He replied in kind drawing a big heart with his hands.

"_You need to spell it out for me." _

Now this had been Kurt's idea, facing the audience they signed their line together, almost literally spelling it out.

"_Cause I'm still trying to learn the art of love." _

Rachel turned away taking long slow steps while he trailed after her. 

"_Sometimes I'm gonna miss." _

Spinning her around and flush to him he kissed the tip of her nose.

"_I'm still learning how to give." _

Placing her hands on her hips she tried to push herself up to the tallest she could muster.

"_I'm not giving up." _

Picking her up in a twirl he almost laughed.

"_I'm still learning how to love." _

She echoed, her strong voice practically drowning him out.

"_Learning how to love." _

They could feel the group fall in behind them, he was so focussed on Rachel he didn't see it.

"_Cause I'm still learning the art of love,_

_I'm still trying to not mess up. _

_So whenever I stumble let me know."_

Rachel moved around him repeating the words.

"_Let me know, let me know, let me know." _

"_You need to spell it out." _

"_You need to spell it out." _

"_You need to spell it out." _

"_You need to spell it out for me."_

"_Cause I'm still trying to learn the art of love." _

"_Still learning." _

"_The art of love."_

"_Still learning."_

"_The art of love." _

"_Still learning." _

"_The art of love."_

"_I'm still trying to learn the art of love." _

"_Still learning." _

"_The art of love."_

"_Still learning." _

"_The art of love." _

"_I'm still learning." _

"_Still learning."_

"_The art of love." _

"_I'm gonna get it wrong sometimes because I'm still learning." _

"_Still learning." R_

"_The art of love." together. _

"_Still learning." R_

"_The art of love." together. _

"_Still learning." R_

"_The art of love." together. _

"_The art, the art, the art of love." _

Back at centre stage just millimetres from each other he really wanted to kiss her but he'd read the show choir hand book and had it belted into him by Kurt that it was considered tacky so he settled for what he knew Santana termed 'Finchel eye sex'.

Rachel moved first grabbing his head and practically pushing him into position for the next song while she stood behind Santana. Risking one last look he winked at her, they'd won in all the ways that mattered he knew they had won.

_GLEE!_

Jesse had offered a completely insincere 'nice job' once they had finished their performance, Quinn had sneered about their syrupy song making her want to vomit.

"Are you sure you didn't just get knocked up again?" Santana asked sweetly. "You have been looking bigger lately."

Thankfully Brittany and Artie had manoeuvred her back to their dressing room before Quinn could retaliate.

"Thank you for your lack lustre performance by comparison even Vocal Adrenaline's worst performance could beat that." Quinn smirked. "Why don't you watch how a real team does it, maybe Rachel can pick up a few tips from people who are actually attractive enough to be on a stage that isn't a part of the travelling freak show."

Finn scooped up his pint-sized girlfriend who looked ready to take a swing at Quinn, Lauren and Mercedes were already removing their earrings and thrusting them at their respective boyfriends.

"She's just jealous." Puck said seriously. "I used to think there was something special about you Quinn but there's not. You're the real Lima Loser here, get over yourself. We all did, a long time ago."

Lauren, satisfied with the livid look on the blonde's face took back her earrings and followed Puck to the green room, Sam and Mercedes following quickly but not before one of them muttered something about cutting Quinn.

"They've got it backwards my Grace Kelly." Jesse said kissing Quinn's hand. "They are jealous of you, your beauty, your poise, your allegiance with a winning team. Forget them."

Quinn looked back to where her former team mates had disappeared to.

"I already have." She kissed Jesse on the cheek. "Let's go watch VA destroy them."

"After you mon cherie."

_GLEE!_

It had taken approximately twenty minutes for anyone to notice that Santana was missing and another ten more before anyone thought to look in Quinn's room where she was sure to be wreaking havoc.

"Somehow I don't think these are her style." Santana said holding up a pair of tight black satin boxer shorts. "Property of Jesse St. James, he sews his name into his boxers, what a douche."

"You know speaking to yourself is the first sign of insanity." Artie told her. "How did you get in here?"

"These really pay for themselves." Santana answered waving around her chest area. "Check this out."

"Are they seriously sharing a room?" Tina asked shocked.

"Not only that but from the looks of it a bed and possibly bodily fluids." Lauren noted taking in the crumpled sheets.

"It's like she's going single white female on Rachel." Artie mumbled. "Why are you looking around Quinn's hotel room?"

"To find out what she's really up to." Santana replied form under the bed. "Do you really think she's all of a sudden attracted to an obviously gay but in the closet ex of Berry's just in time for Nationals?"

"Well when you put it like that."

"Guys hurry up, VA is almost finished performing." Mike whispered staring at his phone.

"Got it!" Santana yelled triumphantly. "Her diary, let's go kids I've got some reading to do."

"I don't think I've ever heard her say that." Tina said following them out the door while her boyfriend wiped down the door handles to remove his prints, he really needed to stop watching procedural cop shows.

"Guys this goes all the way back to last year."

Puck had stolen the diary from Santana's hands and started skimming it the second they returned to the dressing room.

"Is that seriously a five year plan?" Lauren asked reading over his shoulder. "I can't believe she actually listed a white picket fence as a requirement, psycho."

"Guys haven't we had enough diary snooping this year?" Finn said. "It's kind of intrusive."

"So?"

"Finn I think you should read this." Puck said slowly. "I know why she's here and why she's sharing a room with Jesse."

"That's sick."

"Oh my god."

"I will end her."

Kurt gasped loudly retching at what he had read.

"That is so vindictive, so cold and calculating." He couldn't help but sigh. "I can't even fake surprise."

"She has problems. Like several." Lauren snapped. "I have a bad attitude but drugging someone with the express intent of making them think they slept with their ex-boyfriend? Even I think that's cruel."

"Not just that." Puck snapped his fingers. "She was going to lie in wait to be the one to comfort Finn."

"I'd rather be comforted by a tazer wielding Suzie Pepper." Finn retorted. "Why would she even think that would work?"

"Because you went to her for solace last time." Rachel answered quietly. "You seek comfort from what you know and Quinn hoped that you would be so upset that you would turn to her."

"Well screw that, she is not going to ruin our Nationals." Santana growled.

"Or our Finchel." Kurt added. "But what should we do?"

"Nothing." Mr. Schuester said taking the diary and putting it in his jacket pocket. "I will talk with Mrs. Fabray when we return to Lima but in the mean time I thought you might be interested to know that they've posted the list."

Rachel hung back while the rest of the group stampeded out of the room.

"Mr. Schue?"

"I'll take care of it." He promised. "Go see where we placed, you were amazing on that stage Rachel. You were born for it."

"Thank you."

It wasn't hard to spot their group still decked out in the performance clothes, Puck's mohawk a stark contrast to the bieber hair that was aplenty not to mention her taller than almost everyone boyfriend.

"So where did we place?"

"I couldn't look." Mercedes said. "I'm too nervous."

"You should do it Rach." Sam encouraged. "Look."

"I can't do it either." She said softly. "If I had a gag reflex I would assume this is what it feels like when you need to throw up."

"I'll look." Finn volunteered. "I'll be able to push through everyone easiest anyway."

"Yeah if we sent in Berry she would get all squished."

Finn pushed his way through stepping on more than one pair of shiny black dress shoes. On the piece of paper were the top twenty choirs, the top ten performed again and the winner would be decided.

"So do you want the good news or the bad news?" He asked.

"Bad news." The group said over the top of each other.

"VA made the top ten." He started. "But we made the top five."

"You're shitting me." Puck said grabbing Finn by the shoulders. "You are shitting me."

"Check yourself man, number three!" He hollered loudly. "SEVEN PLACES IN FRONT OF VOCAL ADRENALINE!"

Almost everyone seemed more excited to have placed higher than Vocal Adrenaline than that they still got to perform tomorrow.

"We did it babe." Finn said twirling Rachel around.

"Yep and now we have a new problem." She kissed him softly. "What are we going to sing?"

_GLEE!_

Everyone had been surprised when it was Rachel that insisted that they go out to celebrate, Lauren had lost ten dollars to her boyfriend since she had bet that they would be locked in their room writing new songs.

"I can't believe Mr Schue let us order whatever we wanted." Puck cheered shovelling a large helping of caviar in his mouth. "This is disgusting."

"It's fish eggs dumbass." Santana retorted cracking her lobster with ease. "Should have just ordered a burger."

"You guys have worked hard and I think you earned a celebration." Mr Schuester explained. "I have another surprise for you all."

"Please tell me that the other nine choirs have food poisoning and we won!" Mercedes begged, she doubted they could prepare a new routine in the time they had.

"I for one would rather win on our merits not by default." Kurt said. "What's our surprise?"

"Well actually it's not my surprise, it's Rachel's." He explained slowly. "Rachel?"

"I've been writing songs since before Regionals, my first few attempts were embarrassingly pedestrian but I got better. If you are all amenable I have a song that I would like to propose us to sing for our finale in two days." Rachel places her folder of songs on the table, keeping it open to 'Come So Far (Got So Far To Go).

"This isn't a duet." Sam said rather dumbly.

"I like it." Brittany smiled. "It sounds like rainbows."

"We still don't have an opener." Tina pointed out.

"I think you may have spoken too soon." Kurt interrupted. "Rach why didn't you show me this?"

"It's not finished." She replied hastily trying in vain to snatch the paper from his fingertips but of course her being so little and Santana so quick it was an abysmal failure.

"Your shiny happy song is good all but we got third place because of that emotional dump you took on the judges." Santana said slowly. "And judging by the tears on this here paper this song is another weepy winner and since Hudson didn't help write it the lame parts are probably zilch."

"Hey!"

"Santana's right." Artie mumbled skimming over the paper. "This is really good Rachel, do you have the piano arrangement?"

"I'm feeling kind of buzzed still." Puck noted. "And not that I don't love being completely bummed out by a Rachel Berry Emotional-palooza can we keep celebrating tonight and get all intense tomorrow?"

"Do you really think Vocal Adrenaline is out celebrating?" Mike pointed out. "We should be dancing in our sleep."

"That's funny I was just going to say that Finn often looks like he **is** asleep when he's dancing." Jesse cut in holding Quinn by the arm. "I can't imagine what you could be celebrating when you have so much to prepare."

"Says the asswipe who's team is only in tenth position." Lauren snorted. "Or are you going to try to convince us that you planned on sucking your way to that place?"

"Don't bother trying to explain." Quinn told Jesse smugly. "They wouldn't understood such nuances as planning a victory."

"And some people don't understand such nuances as birth control." Santana snapped back. "So are you just here to drug Rachel's drink? Does Jesse know about your plan?"

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean." Jesse answered for them both covering Quinn's surprise. "We are merely here to pick up food for our team before resuming our rehearsal schedule, unlike some band of misfits I might mention, Vocal Adrenaline pride themselves on a polished performance that entertains, not makes people feel sorry for them."

Mr Schuester gave them a look that basically said to not react to their baiting, the pair made to leave.

"One more thing Quinn?" He called out. "I believe this is yours, I'd be expecting a phone call from your mother shortly."

"She could just throw the damn thing away, why would you give it back to her?" Mercedes grumbled feeling the bite mark on her forearm.

"Because it is hers." He answered easily, he didn't tell them that he had made copies of several pages, he knew it was wrong but what he had read had disturbed him and before he did anything else he wanted to show them to Emma and get her advice. "And from what her mother said Quinn will be on the next flight back to Ohio."

"I believe we all said we weren't going to let Quinn ruin our Nationals?" Lauren reminded them. "I think we need more cake!"

"You always think we need more cake." Santana said drily.

"Everything is better with cake." Brittany agreed. "Even sex!"

"Don't ask." Artie begged quickly although from the look in Puck's eye he would end up telling them sooner rather than later. Rachel had been silent through this exchange quietly reeling from prying eyes seeing a song she hadn't meant for anyone to read, it was meant to be personal.

"Here's something I never thought I would say." Kurt started. "Why so quiet diva?"

"You completely invaded my privacy for one." She responded. "The song you all decided we must use tomorrow isn't finished and it wasn't meant to be used for competition. At least not this one."

"I'll take huh? For three hundred." He replied confused.

"I wrote that for us Kurt." Rachel said exasperated. "I was still in the hospital and feeling miserable about myself and feeling down and my iPod started playing _Defying Gravity_ and I remembered your face during our diva-off. It made me feel something other than depressed, I felt inspired. I was going to suggest we use that song in our audition tapes for college. It was supposed to be special, just for us. Our song."

"That's really sweet my littlest diva." Kurt gasped. "You wrote a song for me? I thought our song was going to be _For Good_, you wrote that pros and cons list for it and everything."

"I thought this would be more special." She rolled her eyes. "Now what are we going to do?"

"I say you and I are going to practice this duet, own the stage, win Nationals, get into whatever college we choose and be closer than Will & Grace, Jack & Jen, Stanford & Carrie."

"Are you asking me to be your hag?" Rachel beamed.

"Since we sang as Barbra and Judy there was no doubt." Kurt replied. "We have to practice, your room or mine?"

"Yours." Rachel decided. "You go first, I'll follow in five minutes in case Jesse or Quinn is having us watched."

"Try to switch coats or something." Kurt advised. "No one will recognise you and take the stairs, not the elevator. Knock three times so I'll know it's you. I wouldn't put it past VA to kidnap one of us so we're uneligable to compete."

Rachel nodded her agreement and employed all of her acting skills to not react when Kurt nonchalantly walked away from the table. Leaning forward she whispered to Finn where she was going and why imploring him to pass the message along, the rest of the group would meet them later so as not to rouse suspicion.

"As fun as this is, I must bid you all adieu. My vocal chords require sleep and rest if they are to whip the competition. Good night." She waved sheepishly grabbing Finn's bulky coat and wrapping it around herself, hiding her hair under the beanie shoved in the coat pocket. Keeping the hood up she slunk out of the restaurant trying to be as un-Rachel Berry as possible.

_GLEE! _

Mercedes and Santana had elected themselves in charge of wardrobe immediately disregarding the aqua dresses from Regionals that they were going to use if they made it through to the second day. They'd left at 6am and returned less than three hours later with bags.

"I guess that saying about New York never sleeping is true!" Mercedes exclaimed. "We got the hottest dresses and matching ties for the boys."

"And as much as you boys would love a free peep show I'm going to have to throw your butts out while as girls get dressed." Santana ordered. "Vamanos!"

Not eagar to be stuck in a small hotel room while six girls wielded hot rollers, straighteners and whatever else they deemed necessary they all left, except for Kurt who claimed to be in charge of Rachel's 'look' which had to match his own for their duet. Finn had been surprised when Rachel revealed that the song she had written was for her and Kurt but easily gave up his lead status when she explained what it meant to her. He'd gone so far as to talk with Mr. Schue who had arranged for several college scouts including ones from Julliard, NYADA and Tisch would be there to see the two do what they do so well.

"If you hold that thing any closer to my eye I'm going to lose it!" Mercedes snapped batting Brittany away. "Two coats of hairspray and I should be done."

Standing up she struck a pose in her green dress.

"You look beautiful." Rachel said truthfully. "We should probably head downstairs now."

"The whole point of getting ready up here was because we didn't want to let VA mess with us by being where they expected us." Lauren reminded her.

"And they go on stage in three minutes." Rachel pointed out. "I think we're safe, besides Mr. Schue is already down there."

"Let's go blow the lid off this joint!" Santana cheered. "Bring it home for me Berry, I likes my trophies."

"They're so shiny!" Brittany agreed clasping hands with both Santana and Rachel, the rest of the girls grabbed on forming a chain. With one final look in the mirror they headed down to the competition, it was now or never.

_GLEE!_

Idly she wondered if there was a place that would ever fill her with as much excitement as the stage. Right now waiting just inside the curtain waiting for her cue, she had never felt more at peace.

"You own this stage Berry." Puck encouraged bumping her fist.

"Damn straight." Sam agreed winking at her. The boys would enter from behind her half way through the song, the girls behind Kurt before mixing together. They'd practised until their toes had bled, even then Santana had wanted to practise longer.

"You're my star." Finn whispered softly kissing her forehead, then her nose before finally capturing her lips. "I love you."

She considered telling him to break a leg but decided against it.

"I love you too Finn Hudson, you're a star too, don't you forget that."

Brad nodded at her, the agreed upon signal since her vocals started the song and not music. Breathing deeply she stepped forward smiling at the spotlight, not blinded by it.

"_I want to start by letting you know this,  
because of you, my life has a purpose.  
You helped me be who I am today,_

_I see myself in every word you say."_

Striding forward confidently she held the microphone in her hand, this was her time, her stage, her moment and she was sharing it with the people that mattered the most.

"_Sometimes it feels like nobody gets me,  
trapped in a world where everyone hates me.  
There's so much that I'm going through,_

_I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you."_

"_I was broken, _

_I was choking,  
I was lost.  
This song saved my life.  
I was bleeding, _

_stopped believing,  
could have died,  
this song saved my life.  
I was down, _

_I was drowning,_

_but it came on just in time. _

_This song saved my life."_

Kurt stepped out and just like her seemed to shine even more from being on stage, he walked towards her joining their hands.

"_Some times I feel like you've known me forever,  
you always know how to make me feel better.  
Because of you, my dad and me _

_are so much closer than we used to be."_

She smiled bashfully, he'd changed that line from 'Because of you, I have friends, people who care if my life ends.' She preferred his version.

"_You're my escape when I'm stuck in a small town.  
I turn you up whenever I feel down,_

_You let me know like no one else,_

_that it's okay to be myself." _

For once in her life she backed away from the spotlight, letting her best friend take centre stage and sing the words she had written for them.

"_I was broken, _

_I was choking,  
I was lost.  
This song saved my life.  
I was bleeding, _

_stopped believing,  
could have died,  
this song saved my life.  
I was down, _

_I was drowning,_

_but it came on just in time. _

_This song saved my life."_

Grasping Kurt's hand in her own they sang together their voices as always, in perfect harmony.

"_You'll never know what it means to me,_

_that I'm not alone,_

_that I'll never have to be."_

She blinked away the tears that were trying to run down her cheeks, she needed that for the last line.

"_I was broken, _

_I was choking,  
I was lost."_

The rest of the glee club filtered in one by one, singing out the main line with them. This song saved my life.

_"This song saved my life."_

Hearing them all sing her words was her undoing, a giant smile broke across her face and the sheer joy of performing was written all over it.

_"I was bleeding, _

_stopped believing,  
could have died,  
this song saved my life.  
I was down, _

_I was drowning,_

_but it came on just in time. _

_This song saved my life."_

"_My life, my life, this song saved my life."_

"_My life, my life, this song saved my life."_

"_My life, my life, this song saved my life."_

"_My life, my life, this song saved my life."_

Kurt moved away slightly so Rachel had the attention for the last line, the tears finally made their way down her face making her voice sound even more powerful.

"_This song saved my life."_

Exhilarated she grabbed Kurt in a hug not caring if it was too personal for the judges, he returned it tightly before pulling her into position for their next number. She handed her microphone to Mercedes while Kurt handed his to Sam, they owned this.

"_Hey old friend, let's look back,_

_On the crazy clothes we wore." _

Sam expertly twirled Mercedes using some of his Bieber moves.

"_Ain't it fun to look back, _

_And to see it's all been done before."_

Microphones were handed off to Tina and Mike, not to be outdone by Sam, Mike easily flipped Tina around his body swelling with pride at the crowd's applause.

"_All those nights together, _

_Are a special memory." _

It had been a no brainer when it came to who would sing the next line. It had Mike written all over it, he'd been taking vocal lessons from Rachel in exchange for the dance lessons with Finn. Even Tina had been shocked when Rachel had defiantly told everyone that Mike would sing a minute solo.

"_And I can't wait for tomorrow, _

_Just as long as you're dancing next to me."_

Artie wheeled forward, Brittany in his lap. She sprang up as soon as they hit centre stage.

"_Cause it's so clear, _

_Every year, _

_We get stronger." "Stronger."_

Leaning forward she blew a kiss to her boyfriend as they traded off lines.

"_What's gone is gone." _

"_The past is the past." _

"_Turn the radio up." _

"_And then hit the gas. Cause..."_

The choreography so painstaking learned, came in to play. They weren't perfect machines, Finn was still a little clumsy in his turns, but they were having fun.

"_I know we've come so far, _

_But we've got so far to go. _

_I know the road seems long _

_But it won't be long 'til it's time to go_

_So most days we'll take it fast_

_But some nights we'll take it slow. _

_I know we've come so far but baby, baby. _

_We've got so far to go."_

Puck moved forward holding out his hand to Santana who accepted graciously.

"_Hey old friend, together _

_Side by side and year by year." _

Winking at him she wagged her finger at him before shrugging her shoulders.

"_The road was filled with twists and turns._

_Oh but that's the road that got us here."_

Lauren came forward her arm linked with Kurt's.

"_Let's move past the bad times, _

_But before those memories fade." _

Kurt kissed her cheek and did a little jazz square.

"_Let's forgive but not forget._

_And learn from the mistakes we made."_

Finn picked Rachel up bridal style, surprising her since that was definitely not in the choreography. She slung an arm around his neck and went with it.

"_Cause it's so clear, _

_Every year, _

_We get stronger." "Stronger."_

Motioning for him to put her down he instead swung her onto his bag and whispered for her to somersault over him. He had most definitely been practising without her.

"_So don't give up_

_and don't say when._

_And just get back on the road again. Cause..."_

Sam started jumping up and down clapping just giving into the music.

"_I know we've come so far, _

_But we've got so far to go. _

_I know the road seems long _

_But it won't be long 'til it's time to go_

_So most days we'll take it fast_

_But some nights we'll take it slow. _

_I know we've come so far but baby, baby. _

_We've got so far to go."_

Doing the altered jive Brittany and Mike had made up the group made their way of the stage and into the audience pulling people up and dancing with them while Mike and Brittany danced expertly on stage.

"_Hey old friend come along for the ride, _

_There's plenty of room so jump inside._

_The highway's rocky every now and then, _

_But it so much better than where I've been._

_Just keep on movin', at your own speed, _

_Your heart is all the compass you'll ever need. _

_Let's keep cruisin' the road we're on, _

_'Cause the rear view mirror only shows what's gone, gone, gone."_

Joining hands in a two long chains the New Directions made their way back up to the stage, Mercedes splitting away to sing again.

"_Got so far."_

"_It's so clear _

_Every year _

_We get stronger." _

"_So shine that light._

_Take my hand. _

_And let's dance into tomorrow land."_

Everyone split into their couples, Finn with Rachel, Puck with Lauren, Sam with Mercedes, Artie with Brittany, Mike with Tina and Kurt with Santana. They sang to each other dancing swing style and switching partners quickly.

"_Cause I know we've come so far, _

_But we've got so far to go. _

_I know the road seems long _

_But it won't be long 'til it's time to go_

_So most days we'll take it fast_

_But some nights we'll take it slow. _

_I know we've come so far but baby, baby. _

_We've got so far to go."_

Standing in a long straight line they all bowed their heads. The applause was immediate started by their very own Mr. Schue who was waiting just inside the stage. They wanted to bask in it but they couldn't, they run of stage in a giddy clump high fiving, whooping, hugging and kissing each other.

"Well?" Finn asked Mr Schue.

"It was 10." He replied a huge smile breaking out across his face. "I am so proud of you guys."

"I knew he couldn't go this whole competition without turning it into an after-school special." Santana groaned. "Can't you just say we kicked ass?"

"Yeah we did!" Puck yelled. "Screw the rest of the competition I say we start celebrating now."

"Because we're all winners just by being here." Santana said drolly looking at their coach.

"I wasn't going to say that exactly." He mumbled.

"We did it you guys. We made it to Nationals. We have already won." Tina pointed out. "We weren't meant to make it past Sectionals last year. We are winners."

"Group hug!" Brittany screamed flinging herself at Tina. Lauren and Santana both withheld for reputations sake before joining in. It was cliché, it was lame, it was so not cool. Both then again, that's what everyone thought of them anyway.

_GLEE!_

Rachel had insisted they watch the rest of the performances, it was bad luck to celebrate prematurely. Kurt had immediately agreed and Mr Schuester had been minutes away from a good sportman speech so they caved and sat through the last three performances, VA had performed earlier in the day and had been polished, synchronised and completely lacking heart.

"That group from California were good." Mercedes said as they waited backstage. They were about to call the three teams that placed onto the stage and everyone was beyond nervous.

"They sang songs that all had California in the title. I don't think the Beach Boys and Katy Perry were really made to mash." Kurt assured them. "We sang original songs, we had heart and soul."

"And blood, sweat and tears." Sam added. "We rocked this."

"Who cares were we place." Lauren said. "We made it out of Lima, we made it to the top 10. We performed on stage in front of hundreds of people. Who else in our school can say that?"

"None." Puck said agreeing with his girlfriend. "As long as we beat that asshat I'm happy."

"As much as I hate to interrupt sappy shit they're about to announce the top three." Santana cut in grabbing Brittany's hand who was already holding Artie's, they all reached around and grabbed another hand until they were a tangle of joint hands.

"Welcome again to the 2011 Show Choir Championships!" The MC boomed into the microphone. "And what a talented group of competitors we have had this year. Our judges had a very hard decision to make but there can be only one winner."

"This guy is dragging it out on purpose, it's the only time in his life people actually care what he's saying." Santana mumbled under her breath.

"In third place, The San Antonio High School Songbirds."

It was double edged sword, they wanted to hear their name, but they wanted to hear it in first place. They also wanted to hear VA's name so they didn't place first, but they didn't want to hear it all which would mean they didn't make top three.

"In second place, The Hampton North High School Harmonies."

Oh god, if they read out VA's name there would be no stopping Puck from running on stage and quite possibly beating Jesse over the head with the giant trophy.

"And now the one name I'm sure everyone back stage has been waiting for. The winner of the 2011 Show Choir Championship is... The New Directions from William McKinley High School."

No one moved, in fact Rachel was sure she had hallucinated for a minute. But if she was hallucinating so was everyone else. It was Mike who reacted first, always the showman he made his entrance by moonwalking onto the stage, Brittany pushed Artie on with her, Santana on her heels. Finn grabbed Rachel and threw her on his back nudging Kurt and Puck to hurry up. The only one who hung back was Mr. Schuester, he was their teacher and as much as he wanted to revel in the win, this was their moment.

The trophy was taller than Rachel, it was taller than Tina, Finn was the only one it didn't dwarf.

"How are we going to get this back to Ohio?" Rachel asked petting the trophy like it was a kitten.

_GLEE! _

Santana and Rachel had wanted to rent a car and drive the trophy back to Ohio neither trusted the airport not to break it or a courier. Eventually they had agreed to a professional courier service and had supervised it being wrapped in bubble wrap and placed in a packing crate. Santana had threatened the delivery guy in such rapid Spanish that even Mr Schue hadn't been able to understand what had been said but given the look on the guys face everyone had caught the general meaning.

"Do we have to go back?" Rachel asked dreamily staring out the back of the airport shuttle at the New York skyline.

"I agree with Rachel." Kurt said plopping his head on her shoulder. "New York is fashion and glamour, broadway and boutiques, Lima is slushee facials and dealing with Quinn."

"Quit it you two, you are killing my good mood." Artie commanded. "It's not like you aren't both coming back here in the summer for the Tisch Summer Arts Program and oh yeah college!"

"It's not the same." Kurt sniffed.

"How can we go back to boring Lima after being here?" Santana agreed. "I've had real bagels, that crap they sell at the Lima Bean wont be the same."

"One more year and we'll all be back here." Rachel said confidently. "After graduation Kurt, Finn and I will rent an apartment, Sam and Mercedes will live across the hall from us-"

"You've been watching too many _Friends_ repeats." Tina laughed.

"What's wrong with wanting all of us to stick together after high school?" Finn defended his girlfriend. "I kind of like the idea of sticking together."

"Of course you and Kurt will you guys are brothers." Puck pointed out. "And I'm still not entirely sure you and Berry over there will make it to the end of high school before getting married so we know you guys will be together but the rest of us? How many high school friendships really last?"

"How many high school friendships have to put up with teenage pregnancies, enemy birth mothers, slushee facials and Sue Sylvester?" Mike challenged.

"That's true, I can't imagine anything after high school being as challenging as being in glee club at McKinley." Mercedes agreed. "I can't speak for the rest of you but this girl is getting the hell out of Lima."

"Can we talk about this when we've had more than three hours sleep and aren't living on pure adrenaline?" Lauren yawned. "I want to get a good sleep so I can be wide awake when we stroll into school tomorrow National Champions. I can't wait to see Quinn's pinched face."

"My kind of girl." Santana smirked. "Sue's going to shit bricks when she catches a glimpse of that trophy."

"I wonder if it'll mean we get a day free of slushee facials?" Kurt wondered aloud.

Yeah right.

_GLEE!_

Sue's face had been priceless, the trophy in all it's glory had been displayed in the gymnasium and Principal Figgins had requested that New Directions performed their winning routine for the school. For once they had gotten through a school assembly without causing some kind of catastrophe. No one had been slusheed but Santana had that done to the work of her bully whips, plus _some_one had smashed in the machine.

"It's official, Quinn wasn't in school today." Santana announced. "According to number 13, she's been in her house all day. Looks like Judy finally put a leach on her. Too bud she didn't use a muzzle too."

"You might want to try and learn their names." Rachel suggested.

"I'll learn their names when they're important enough to remember them." Santana reasoned.

"Does number 13 know what's going on in there?" Artie asked.

"The local priest is there, maybe it's an exorcism." She replied with a smirk.

"That's offensive to demons." Lauren said. "My bet is she's being sent to the nunnery."

"I don't think we should be discussing this." Rachel said quietly. "It's none of our business."

"She left you to die." Mercedes pointed out. "And she still hasn't apologised, that little good behaviour bond of hers is out the window if the cops find out what she was planning to do to you in New York."

"Which is why Quinn is no longer a student at McKinley." Mr Schuester announced closing the choir room door behind him. "I spoke with Mrs. Fabray and in exchange for not telling the police about New York she has agreed to enrol Quinn at a different and send her to therapy."

"Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow." Tina blurted out. "It's the local girl's only Christian high school, she'll need therapy after going there."

"Perpetual sorrow? That means always sad." Mike said scrunching up his nose. "Why doesn't she just transfer to Carmel?"

"Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow doesn't have extracurriculars unless you can't prayer circles and volunteering at homeless shelters." Santana said. "Mrs Fabray probably thinks that without any distractions Quinn will go back to the perfect virginal daughter of yesteryear."

"Too late for that." Lauren muttered under her breath. She'd never bought that perfect prude princess act of Quinn's, she was rotten to her core.

"What I just told you doesn't leave this room." Mr Schuester warned them. "It's over."

"With all due respect Mr Schuester." Finn began. "It wont be over until Quinn owns up to what she's done. I hope she gets help because until she does, this will never do over."

"She's not even here and she's ruining our celebration." Lauren complained. "I'm not going to suggest we sing _Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead_ but can we at least forget about it for the next hour and celebrate the fact that we won?"

"I'm with Lauren." Puck agreed immediately, he definitely didn't want to think about Quinn and how bat-shit crazy she's gotten. The rest of the group nodded their own agreement, someone put on their iPod, Sam pulled Mercedes towards the centre of the room and started to dance. It was a party, or at least it would have been if the thought of a certain blonde didn't weigh on everyone's mind.

_GLEE! _

Santana glared out the window at the rain, apparently Finn and Rachel found it an aphrodisiac since they hadn't stopped making out since they got on the bus. Likewise, Mike and Tina were whispering to each other something that she really didn't want to listen too, in fact everyone seemed lovey dovey, everyone except Lauren. She still loved Britt but Lauren had become one of her best friends. Together they were the most feared girls in the school, Lauren was the one who helped her when she came out to her parents and when Brittany said she was in love with Artie. And she'd been there to cheer at her wrestling competitions and keep girls away from Puck, not that Lauren had needed much help, Puck seemed to only have eyes for her.

"This bites." She announced glaring at the rain again. "Nationals have seriously downgraded, what's so great about Chicago anyway?"

"Oprah." Sam suggested.

"Her show ended last year." Blaine reminded him, he'd transferred to McKinley at the start of the school year to be closer to Kurt and far away from his creepy stalker Sebastian. Santana had considered employing the Bully Whips on them but she didn't want to divide their attention too much. She's deputised a Cheerio to keep the Bully Whips in shape while she was at the competition, she was pretty sure she'd found her career- CEO of a security firm.

"I agree with Santana." Rachel said taking a breather from Finn's lips. "But anything would pale in comparison to the bright lights of New York."

"Let's just hope this competition isn't as eventful as last years." Mike laughed.

"You just jinxed us dude!" Sam yelled shaking his head. "You have to go outside, run around the bus three times counter-clockwise and spit."

"We're here!" Mr Schuester called out from the front, his smile was blinding, almost as blinding as the diamond on Miss Pillsbury's finger. He'd proposed last month and she'd said yes before he'd finished asking.

"Finally." Santana muttered linking her arms with Brittany and Lauren. "Let's check out this place."

No mini-bar but the beds were decent; meaning no lingering odours or noticeable stains. She so wanted to curl up with a pillow and sleep, they had been up at 4am for their flight.

"Practice in ten girls." Miss Pillsbury said poking her head in the door. "Meeting room 1."

Rachel left straight away leaving her bag on her bed, Finn was exiting the room next door where the boys were staying and joined her.

"Are you sure you want to sing this song?" He asked her for what felt like the fiftieth time.

"While I would prefer to sing it to every single person who has doubted me, you and relationship I think this competition is an excellent place to debut it." She answered. "Lauren and Santana's group song is amazing, we can't lose if we sing them both."

Finn nodded accepting her answer, this song had been a milestone for them. They'd written it together, it hadn't been a single night thing either; it had taken months before they both agreed it was perfect. Mr Schue had loved it and insisted they sing it at Sectionals but Rachel had said no, if they were going to sing it at a competition it would be Nationals. Santana had taken the solo at Sectionals, Mercedes at Regionals and now Finchel would be their big hope for Nationals.

"So this is it guys, Nationals. For some of you this is your last year and I know you want to go out with a bang-"

"If this is your speech about how we're winners even if we don't come home with a trophy please save your breath." Santana interrupted. "We've heard that speech before, I could probably say it for you word-for-word."

"Okay then." Mr Schue smiled. "Then let me just say this, it's been a pleasure watching you all grow as musicians and mature as people. I'm proud of you and it's been an honour to be your teacher."

"So now we know what he's going to say at Graduation." Sam joked earning a sharp elbow to the rib from his girlfriend.

"I guess there's nothing left to say but from the top!"

The group groaned, it really was Mr Schue's catchphrase, but nonetheless they moved into position and started running through their songs; after all, they had a title to defend.

_GLEE!_

She didn't know why she was even here. Actually that was a lie, her counsellor said that it would be 'healing'. Of course she also thought that talking about feelings somehow made them better. She'd been in counselling for close to a year and the only thing she'd learnt was that she was angry. She was angry at her father. She was angry at Puck. She was angry at Coach Sylvester. She was angry. She'd talked about all of this, not that it had helped because apparently she hadn't revealed the person she was _really_ angry at; herself. So that was why she was here, to confront her anger, after-all her anger could be traced back to the glee club, at least that's what she thought. Of course she wasn't alone, she hadn't been alone for a year except when she slept. Her mother was at her side clasping her tightly at the elbow exclaiming over each group like they were The Beatles.

"_Elevator buttons and morning air,  
Stranger's silence makes me wanna take the stairs.  
If you were here, we'd laugh about their vacant stares,_

_But right now, my time is theirs." _

It was Rachel, of course it was Rachel it always was. She sounded happy, and if you couldn't hear it the sheer joy on her face was a dead give-away.

"_Seems like there's always someone who disapproves,  
They'll judge it like they know about me and you.  
And the verdict comes from those with nothing else to do,_

_The jury's out, but my choice is you."_

And Finn, she was mildly surprised that they were still together. She had assumed that one of both of them would have screwed up at least a few times in the last twelve months, they always did. But judging from the adoring look on Rachel's face and the way Finn seemed to only see Rachel they were definitely together.

"_So don't you worry your pretty little mind,_

_People throw rocks at things that shine."_

It wasn't hard to guess who exactly that line was directed at, she felt like she had been sucker-punched in the gut. The tender way that he stroked her cheek as he sang those words.

"_And life makes love look hard_

_The stakes are high, the water's rough, but this love is ours."_

Rachel was walking around the stage, Finn never far from her, they moved like they could sense where the other ways at every moment.

"_You never know what people have up their sleeves,  
Ghosts from your past gonna jump out at me.  
Lurking in the shadows with their lip gloss smiles,_

_But I don't care 'cause right now you're mine."_

If only they knew this lip glossed smile was in the audience, she idly wondered what would happen if they knew she was there, if it would change things.

"_And you'll say don't you worry your pretty little mind,  
People throw rocks at things that shine.  
And life makes love look hard,  
The stakes are high, the water's rough, but this love is ours."_

She honestly felt sick to her stomach, the pathetic look of love that were being shared between the two were playing with her mind.

"_And it's not theirs to speculate if it's wrong and,  
Your hands are tough but they are where mine belong in._

_I'll fight their doubt and give you faith with this song for you."_

Why had he never looked at her with such absolute adoration, he had never been so in tune with her.

"_'Cause I love the gap between your teeth,  
And I love the riddles that you speak.  
And any snide remarks from my father about your tattoos will be ignored,_

_'Cause my heart is yours."_

Tattoos? She didn't know Finn had a tattoo, she couldn't see it from her seat but her mind was happy to offer up what could be inked on his skin. Rachel's name. A gold star. Their sickening couple name 'Finchel'.

"_So don't you worry your pretty little mind,  
People throw rocks at things that shine.  
And life makes love look hard."_

Finally the rest of the group entered so it was no longer the Finchel show. They moved in synch but it wasn't robotic, just fluid.

"_And don't you worry your pretty little mind,  
People throw rocks at things that shine.  
But they can't take what's ours, they can't take what's ours,_

_The stakes are high, the water's rough, but this love is ours."_

Her mother started the applause clapping loudly and yanking her up from her seat, her arms felt weak as she clapped. Life had moved on without her, glee had moved on without her and they looked happy. Happy without her. She was running out into the foyer before she realised her legs had even moved. She wasn't angry in that moment, she was sad. She could have been apart of that if she hadn't been so angry.

_GLEE!_

Undoing six locks just to get into his apartment still pissed him off in Lima he rarely if ever even bothered to lock the door. The TV was on blaring familiar music and as always there was something that smelled amazing wafting in from the kitchen. Technically the kitchen was more of a bench with a stove and sink behind it and it was in the lounge room.

"I can't believe you're watching that again." Finn laughed flopping down on the couch.

"I wasn't the one who left it in the DVD player." Rachel replied poking out her tongue. "We look so young."

"That was six months ago." He reminded her gently kissing her temple.

"Still." She pouted. "If you had told me six months ago that I would be in an apartment in New York City with Finn Hudson I would have been in complete disbelief."

"Who knew they gave such great dorm rooms to married people?" Finn replied. "Wait, does that mean you didn't think I'd be in New York with you?"

"I never in a million years thought that I would be eighteen, married, at NYADA with my beautiful, handsome husband." Rachel replied. "I always assumed I'd get married after I'd accomplished more things on my life list."

"Well if I remember correctly you asked me to elope with you on our first date." Finn teased.

"Shut up." She replied. "I never thought we'd actually elope and live to tell the tale."

"I haven't killed you yet only because you promised our parents and me a big elaborate wedding over Christmas. I've made some new wedding gown sketches, it's very _Roman Holiday_." Kurt snapped brandishing a wooden spoon like a weapon.

"Why aren't you at your dorm?" Finn yelled. He was pretty sure Kurt spent more time here than he did.

"Because my idiot roommate keeps hitting on Blaine. I swear the man is insufferable. And what kind of name is Sebastian? That's not a name, it's a crab from _The Little Mermaid!_"

"So why aren't you at his dorm?"

"Excuse me for wanting to visit my brother and sister in law." Kurt huffed. "I just thought that since I have had a trying day that I could seek comfort from my family."

"Blaine's still at work." Rachel explained.

"Yes my boyfriend loves his pay check more than me."

"Remember when we all thought you were the dramatic one?" Finn joked. "Blaine doesn't love his pay check more than you, I thought his internship was unpaid."

"It is. Kurt's just feeling sorry for himself." Rachel said getting up and pulling the vegan lasagne from the tiny oven. "Besides I ran into someone today and I think you both will be interested to hear who."

"Don't start without me." Santana yelled letting herself into the apartment with the keys she had copied off Finn's. "Really Berry? More vegan shit? I bought pepperoni pizza."

Finn's mouth watered at the smell, his stomach was still a traitor but his brain was smart enough to stick to the lasagne.

"You called Santana? Must be serious." Finn mumbled under his breath, being the only glee kids in New York and after the whole drama that was high school they had all managed to get pretty close. "If you call the whole glee club in on Skype I'm going to be scared."

"I had to leave my campus security meeting early for this so it better be good." Santana warned around a mouth of melted cheese.

"I saw Quinn today." Rachel answered neatly cutting her lasagne and taking a careful bite.

"She's back." Kurt said his face stricken. "Did she try to kill you again?"

"What did she say when she saw the rock?"

"You don't think she followed you home do you?"

The questions came out on top of each other.

"It was fine." Rachel answered tightly. "She seemed...different. She was with her mother, she actually apologised."

"But did she mean it?" Kurt asked expecting a big, fat resounding no.

"Actually I think she did. She seemed almost fragile, did you guys know she was at Nationals? That year in Chicago?" Rachel asked. "She said she saw us perform and she finally realised what she was doing."

"So what you're saying is it that Quinn Fabray is no longer Satan?" Santana checked. "Did she put a spell on you or something?"

"I'm serious, she just seemed...sad. I almost felt sorry for her."

"Don't. She bought everything on herself remember?" Finn said reaching for her hand.

"I know, she's in school at OSU. She's studying to become a psychiatrist."

"Makes sense. All shrinks are whack jobs from way back." Santana smirked. "I still don't believe it, there's no way she's changed."

"Well you'll get to see for yourself." Rachel told her. "Or did you forget Mr. Schue's wedding next month?"

Kurt almost smiled, it was going to be a glee reunion, he was calling it a practice for the _real_ Finchel wedding. Everybody was going back to Ohio for it, for most it would be the first time they were all together since summer.

"Just when I thought college was going to be boring." Santana smiled wickedly. "I wonder if I can get some surveillance from my old bully whips before we roll in to town?"

"Who is running that now?" Finn asked hoping to change the topic from Quinn.

"Karofsky." She answered. "Now that Azimio's gone he's actually not a total tool, plus he finally vacated the entirely too crowded by Tom Cruise closet. He's still a douche but now he uses those powers for good, not evil."

"Sounds like you've find your Vice President for Lopez Security." Rachel noted.

"You've got to come up with a better name than that." Kurt told her. "Something with more oomph."

"Shut it or I wont walk you back to your dorm and threaten that pip squeak roommate of yours into leaving Warbler alone."

Kurt pretended to zip his lip, he really needed someone to take care of that guy, he had fantasied about smothering him with a pillow but it was too hands on.

"Come on lady lips, lets leave the old married couple to wash the dishes and polish their ball and chains." Santana winked goodbye pulling Kurt with her.

"So do you really think she's changed?" He asked gathering up the dishes and dumping them in the sink.

"Yeah, I think she had." Rachel answered wrapping her arms around his neck. "She actually said congratulations and didn't even ask if I was pregnant."

"So she has better manners than Puck." Finn joked remembering his friend's gaff at their news. "Are you sure you can handle seeing her at Mr. Schue's wedding?"

"I have everything I ever wanted right here and she's still in Ohio, living with regrets." Rachel bit her lip. "I think that Quinn Fabray drama is for high school Finchel not married, living in New York grown up Finchel."

"Say what you want about Finchel I really quite prefer being called the Hudsons." Finn said huskily picking Rachel up and setting her on the tiny bench. "I really like calling you Mrs. Hudson."

"And I really like being called Mrs. Hudson." She replied blowing some of the bubbles from the sink at him. "Can you finish the dishes? I've been dying to take a shower since I got home."

"Yes dear." He droned in a perfect imitation of a put upon husband. Maybe eloping right out of high school wasn't the smartest thing to do to most people, or all people really. But those people weren't married to Rachel Barbra formerly Berry now Hudson. He found his forever after when he was sixteen, what kind of idiot would let that get away just because of a number? He may not have been top of his class but he wasn't that dumb.

"You know Finn, it's more environmentally friendly if we share this shower. Save water and all." Rachel said coyly from the doorway to their bedroom. It would have been sexy if he hadn't tripped over his pants in his haste to join her.

_GLEE!_


End file.
